


The Modern Day Monster

by Dangerously_Demonic



Series: The Guide to Murder [1]
Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies), Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Blood and Gore, Human Experimentation, Hybrids, It's basically gay raptor sex, It's lil Murder Bby, Jurassic Park AU, M/M, Making a Better Monster, Mating Rituals, Pre-Jurassic World, Shapeshifting, So smol and innocent, Territorial Behavior, What InGen Hid, playing god, self-surgery, shit gets fucked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-03-20 23:44:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 42,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13728537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: A planned vacation to Costa Rica goes horribly, horribly wrong. Lost on an island inhabited by terrifying dinosaurs, Joey struggles to survive and discovers the horrific secrets that InGen left behind. In doing so, he's found by a survivor of illegal experiments and comes to find out that some of the same things were done to him during his brief capture by the islands' resident mad scientist.This yields the question: will he linger with the humanity he's known his entire life, or will he embrace what he's been changed into?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> JP AU. The internet needs more Murder Bby.
> 
> Essentially, this is the background of a RP character I created way back in 2001 when JP3 dropped. He's gone through some minor revamping over the years, but his history has largely stayed the same. Most of this background is pieced together from old RPs I remember, canon material from the JP/JW movies/universe, and good ole fashion fill-in-the-blank writing.

_In the beginning, God created dinosaurs._  
_While pleased with His creations, they were still lacking._  
_After a time, He wiped the slate clean and created Mankind._  
_They worshiped Him as the dinosaurs were unable to.  
_ _And it was good._

  


_Man gazed in wonder at the behemoths that came before them, wonderful and terrible beasts._  
_“Surely, we were created in His image!” they cried as they pointed at the bones._  
_“Why shouldn’t we do the same as Him?” Man asked of the sky._  
_Once more, dinosaurs lived, a bastardization of order.  
_ _And it was good._

  


_Man remained unsatisfied with his creation and sought to perfect it._  
_Trial and error, death and mutation; the careful manipulation of the genome._  
_His hand turned against his brethren in shameful ways that made God weep softly._  
_But at last his work was done, the perfect dinosaur had been created.  
_ _And it was Murder._


	2. The Vacation

The gym leader’s Poliwrath only had a small amount of HP left, but then again, so did Joey’s Bayleaf. It was going to be a pretty close match. Although, he _did_ have that low level Pikachu...But it could easily be wiped out if it didn’t one hit KO the Poliwrath. With a frown, he pulled up his list of pokemon and stared at them while he tried to make a decision. Someone called his name, but the only thing he did was roll onto his back. Pikachu it was.

So far, so good. With a tense lip bite, he pressed the button on his GameBoy and watched the animation play out. When the Poliwag fainted, he let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and about jumped when someone said his name.

“Joey. It’s time to go.” The brown haired woman in the doorway had a bit of a scolding tone to her voice.

Joey peered around his GameBoy at her for a moment before making a noncommittal noise and returned his attention to the game. Since he had just barely won the gym battle, he quickly saved the game. He really, really didn’t want to have to do it over. The next thing he knew, the GameBoy had been plucked out of his hands. With a bit of an angry squawk, he rolled over onto his stomach and sat up on his knees.

“Give it back, Carla!”

Carla turned off the device and gave him a disapproving look, “It’s time to go. We’ve been waiting on you for the past ten minutes.”

“I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not my mom.” It was a bit of a mean thing to say, but Joey hadn’t really liked it that his dad had remarried so quickly. He hadn’t adjusted to life without his mom when his dad had already gotten engaged, and remarried a few months later. The death of a loved one was hard for adults, let alone children.

Before Carla could respond to the insult, a male voice from behind her spoke sharply, “Hey! Don’t speak to her like that! Get your stuff and let’s go.”

Joey looked past Carla and at his dad’s angry face. It was briefly tempting to continue with the belligerent act, but the expression he saw suggested that it would have been a bad idea. After a moment longer, he climbed off the bed and grabbed his suitcase to stomp his way past the two adults. As he passed Carla, he snatched the GamBoy out of her hand and continued on his way downstairs.

Carla sighed and turned slightly to lean against the doorframe as she watched Joey leave. Then, she looked to Mark, “He really doesn’t like me, does he?”

“He’ll get over it.”

“I don’t know. He seems to be taking Diane’s death pretty hard. Don’t you think he should see a therapist or something?” From what she knew about Joey, he’d been a pretty good kid. He had always done well in school, and while he hadn’t been super outgoing, still had a few friends. After Diane’s death, that had all gone down hill with frequent write ups over being disrespectful towards teachers.

“Nah. He’s 11. It’s the build up before he turns into a little hellion during his teens. I was the same way.” Mark, meanwhile, didn’t share her concerns and tended to brush it off as a case of ‘boys will be boys’.

“You also weren’t adopted _or_ lose your mom.” She pointed out as a last jab, but then sighed and shook her head. “We should go, especially after getting onto him for dragging his feet. Don’t want him to sulk for the entire trip to Costa Rica.”

She pushed herself away from the door frame and started down the stairs. Behind her, Mark muttered that Joey was going to sulk regardless of what they did. It wasn’t exactly untrue, but Carla still wished that she could help the boy. Despite how well she got along with Mark, Joey was often a source of tension due to both his behavior and how to raise him.

By the time they had locked up the house and gotten to the car, Joey was already lost to the world of Pokemon. After Diane’s death, he’d sunken himself into whatever world of fantasy he could get his hands on. Books, movies, TV shows, and video games, it didn’t matter which as long as it distracted him from life. Fantasy and scifi were both his favorites. He couldn’t tell them a damn thing about what he learned in history, but ask him about the movesets a Pokemon had? The boy could talk for hours.

True to Mark’s word, Joey remained silent the entire trip to the airport. Although, Carla suspected that it had less to do with sulking and more that he was engrossed in his game. Halfway to the airport, she had asked if he had packed extra batteries and was only given a vague ‘yes’ noise.

Once at the airport, Mark parked next to the hanger that housed his plane. Security had tightened up after September and was absolutely insane at larger airports, now. However, since it was a privately owned airport and Mark had been using it for years, a bit of a blind eye was turned to them.

While he ran through the pre-flight list, Joey and Carla loaded the suitcases into the back of the plane. Carla had only flown with Mark once, and it was a short flight, but Joey had been through several. This meant that he took quiet glee in being able to tell her how everything needed to be strapped down.

The Cessna wouldn’t be able to make the full trip from California to Costa Rica on one tank of fuel, so the plan had been to hopscotch their way down. Carla was apprehensive about the plan since it was the first long distance flight she’d be making. Mark wasn’t worried and neither was Joey. In fact, the boy had already strapped himself into the back, GameBoy already in hand. Between Joey’s earlier temper tantrum and getting everything prepped, they were a bit behind schedule. Mark didn’t seem to mind as he taxied them to the runway.

Most of the trip was, overall, uneventful. At a couple of stops, they rented hotels or did a bit of sightseeing. Carla was determined to buy little knickknacks to send back to her mother once they returned to California. It was the final leg of the trip that had Carla worried. The weather was supposed to turn bad later in the evening, right when they were supposed to be landing in Costa Rica. She wanted to delay the flight till the next day, but Mark refused. He was confident that by leaving early, they’d beat the storm.

Unexpectedly, the storm had gained strength faster and sooner than it had been anticipated. Mark kept his eyes on the instrument panel thanks to the limited visibility. He had flown by instrument in the past, but it had always been over land and not open water. Beside him, Carla tightly grasped the cross on her necklace and rubbed her thumb over the inlaid design. As the turbulence began to get worse, Joey spoke up quietly, a slight tremor to his voice, “We’re not gonna crash, are we Dad?”

“Nah. We’ll be fine, Buddy.” Mark replied, unusually cheerful in an attempt to keep his family from worrying. Not a moment later was the chilling sound of the engine choking and sputtering before finally dying. Both Mark and Joey had heard the sound several times, but only in a controlled fashion. Never in a situation such as this. Mark muttered a soft curse at his luck.

Carla clutched the cross tighter and started whispering the Lord’s Prayer under her breath while Mark desperately tried to restart the engine. It gave a few pathetic sputters before going completely silent. With the engine a lost cause, he focused on keeping the plane steady while he sent out a mayday. The only thing he received from the radio was garbled static. He pulled off the headset and glanced at Carla who had shifted to trying to calm Joey.

As the plane descended, he was able to make out an island, and what seemed to be a runway. “Look! There’s a runway! We’ll be fine.” He chose to omit the fact that the plane was descending too fast to make it to the runway. If they were lucky, they’d hit the trees and not the mountains. Desperate, he tried to squeeze out a bit more distance out of the plane using every trick he knew.

Joey looked past his dad and Carla towards the greenery in front of them. He wasn’t an expert pilot like his dad, but he knew enough to know that they weren’t going to make it to the runway. The only response he could make to the claim of survival was a hiccuped sob before they hit the trees.


	3. Survival

Everything ached. Slowly, Joey opened his eyes and squinted at the blurry green brightness outside the window. The air was humid and tropical with the sound of birds outside the plane. He closed his eyes for a moment an opened them again, the world a bit clearer. His head was resting against the window and for some reason he was tilted forward. He blinked again and tried to lift his head despite the muscles in his neck screaming. The side of his head left a smear of blood on the window.

Had last night been a dream? Groaning, he touched the side of his head and immediately felt confused at the blood on his fingers. No, something had happened. Something very bad. “Dad? Carla?”

His throat felt dry and his voice was hoarse. He finally looked up and felt his heart skip a beat. The front window of the plane was gone and the plane was being supported by limbs. One of them had impaled his dad through the chest and had nearly gone through the back of the pilot’s seat. The sound he wanted to make caught in his throat when he looked to Carla’s seat and saw that it was empty. While he hoped she was still alive, the bloody seat and smears down the nose of the plane hinted at her likely fate.

Joey made a soft, choked noise as he struggled to comprehend what had happened. He clammed up at a distant _roar_. That hadn’t sounded like anything man made, nor any animal he knew of. He needed to get of here. Staying in the plane wasn’t much of an option. While it seemed safe at the moment, his dad never really packed much in the way of emergency supplies. And...And his dad would...Just...Attract things.

He looked down at the belt and fumbled with it to get it to unlatch. His first attempt was unsuccessful and after a moment he shoved his feet against the chair in front of him and pushed himself back into his own, “Fucking...Thing.”

The latch clicked open and he started sliding out of his seat. He needed to be careful so he didn’t get stuck somewhere. That would suck: getting stuck after surviving a plane crash. He looked down to watch the placement of his feet while he turned around and looked towards the back of the plane.The luggage was still secured...And the emergency kit was under it.

With careful movements, he climbed behind his seat, not knowing if the plane was secure or precariously balanced. Every little creak or groan the plane made caused him to freeze as if it was going to plummet to the ground below. It didn’t help that there seemed to be a breeze outside, if the leaves moving outside the window was any indication.

Once he was perched on the seat, he started working to loosen the luggage. Silently, he hoped that it wasn’t acting as a counterweight. He’d seen too many movies where people had plunged to certain doom. Bit by bit, he sorted through the luggage to find anything of use. It had mostly been clothes, barring the stupid knickknacks Carla had bought. The thought of her caused a stab of regret for how he had acted towards her in the days prior. She hadn’t been a bad person, really. He just hadn’t liked how dad had moved on so quickly after mom’s death. Joey gave a glance at his dad’s body. Not that it mattered now. His eyes stung with tears and he wiped them away before continuing his search.

His own luggage had much the same, but he had also packed enough batteries to keep his GameBoy going for the next century. With how much he played it, the thing chewed through batteries like they were nothing. He was almost tempted to try and find his GameBoy and pilfer the batteries from it, but since it wasn’t in his line of sight, he assumed it was at the front of the plane.

At the bottom of the luggage was a black backpack with tan trim, and attached to the wall near the floor was the first aid kit. In years past, the only exciting thing the kit had seen was when his dad busted up his hands working on the plane’s engine. He grabbed it and the backpack, then decided that the metal case for the kit would add to much weight.

He opened the back pack and grimaced at how some of the food had been eaten. Thanks, dad. Joey threw out all the trash and figured that it’d just help lighten the load, no matter how miniscule. All and all, it looked like he had a few days of food and water. Hopefully, enough to find help. If the wildlife didn’t get him, first.

Joey stuffed what was in the med kit into the backpack and dropped in the ziploc bag of batteries before he zipped up the backpack. Now how was he going to get out? He turned around and climbed back around his seat, but this time leaned forward to get a better look out the front of the plane. In doing so, his disturbed the flies who’d settled on his dad. The sudden buzzing caused him to sharply recoil and yelp.

The plane gave a creak of warning. He closed his eyes for a brief moment while he waited for the sudden drop that had been threatened. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes and sighed. Both doors were pinned shut by limbs, which meant the only way out was forward. He climbed into Carla’s seat and shoved the backpack onto the instrument panel. Since most of the glass was gone, getting cut wasn’t a massive concern. What was a concern, was getting out and not falling to certain death.

Carefully, he wormed his way through the window and tried to ignore the blood inches from his face. With a bit of contortion, he was able to get his feet on a relatively thick and sturdy feeling limb. He stood there a moment to catch his breath before he grabbed the backpack. While he held onto the plane with one hand, he worked on getting the backpack on. Finally, he started he way towards the trunk of the tree, using the smaller branches to help balance himself.

After what felt like an eternity, he reached the trunk and leaned against it to try and sooth his frayed nerves. He still needed to make it down to the ground. Some vacation this turned out to be. He gave a slight nod to himself and opened his eyes again, “Okay. I got this.”

The tree, at least, had plenty of limbs which made it a lot easier for him to climb down. It was a matter of not slipping and ensuring the backpack didn’t catch on anything. As he made his way down, he started to feel a bit more optimistic about things...Until he reached the final limb and saw that the ground was a good ten feet down. “....Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck.”

He didn’t have a rope or anything, either. With a final muttered swear, he carefully lowered himself down so that he was dangling. Already, his sore muscles protested at the action. He could only hope that he didn’t break or twist anything as he let go. The freefall only lasted a few seconds before he hit the ground feet first and tumbled. Pain lanced up his calves and he laid there on the ground for a moment as he tried to decide on if anything was broken.

Decidedly, the answer was ‘no’. He rolled over and gingerly climbed to his feet before he spotted something bloody in the bushes. Joey looked up and was able to make out the white underbelly of the plane. He suspected he knew what it was, but he didn’t want to check.

Before the plane had gone down, his dad had mentioned a runway. If there was a runway, that might mean people, or at the very least, shelter. So, he started walking, but the memory of the roar earlier still remained fresh in his mind. There was something very, very wrong with this island, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

His walk gradually became more of a hike as the terrain shifted into more of a hill than a flat forest. Between the trauma of earlier and the humidity, he was already exhausted. He picked a rock at random and sat down on it, then swung the backpack off so that he could dig through it for food and water. It’d probably be smart to ration things, since he had no idea how long he’d be here.

While he had part of a breakfast bar stuck in his mouth, a soft, almost musical chirp caught his attention. He looked up, expecting some sort of bird. Instead, he locked eyes with a light green _dinosaur._ His jaw went slack and the breakfast bar fell out of his mouth. “...What.” Then several more chips sounded from behind the first as more of the creatures slipped out of the undergrowth. While the things were honestly kind of cute and he wanted to try and touch one, his frequent movie watching suggested that this was a pretty bad idea to consider. People who tried to touch the cute looking thing usually ended up dying horrifically. Joey wanted to stay alive, all things considered.

Plus, with how several of the things were snapping their jaws at him, he had already gotten the feeling that they weren’t friendly. He reached to his left and grabbed a golfball sized rock, then passed it to his right hand. While he had never played sports, or had an interest, several summers of balloon fights had cultivated a deadly aim. At least, with water balloons.

Quick as lightning, he flung the rock at the first dinosaur. It connected with a wet sounded **thump** , and he knew immediately that he’d done some damage. The dinosaur squawked in pain and tried to scramble away while the others fled. He honestly felt bad for what he’d done, but the things had been acting anything but friendly.

Joey stood back up and snagged the backpack, then started hoofing it again. It was probably wise to get the hell out of there before the things came back. For a moment, he wondered if he’d imagined it, since he’d likely hit his head during the crash. The problem was, the dinosaurs had seemed far, far too real. Then the very real concern of the roar from earlier came back to the forefront of his mind. Could that mean that the roar had belonged to some bigger dinosaur? That...Did not bode well at all.

Moments later, the jungle opened up to reveal the landing strip...Abandoned and grown over. It took him a few more minutes to reach the dirt runway, but it was quite clear that it hadn’t been used in some time. With a bit of a sigh, he walked to one of the ruined buildings and sat down in the shade. He was hot, tired, and apparently, everything had gone to hell. With dinosaurs.

He opened the backpack up again and grabbed a bottle of water. Then he grimaced at the first sip. It tasted old and stale, but right now, it was the only thing he had. After a healthy few more sips, he capped the bottle and shoved it back into the backpack before he leaned his head against the corrugated metal of the building behind him.

With the moment of rest, the events of the past few hours began to shift to the forefront of his mind. His dad was dead. Carla was missing and likely dead. He was on a jungle island with fucking _dinosaurs_. And...He was alone. He was going to die here, wasn’t he? After a moment, he sucked in a shaky breath and rubbed the side of his facing, rubbing off bits of dried blood.

He needed a plan other than wandering around the jungle. Shelter, food, water, that sort of thing. But seriously, how long would he really last? He was just some suburban kid who binge watched a lot of movies in his spare time. Probably a lot more than what was healthy, truth be told. Survival horror movies didn’t translate well into real life.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a bark off in the jungle. It didn’t sound like a dog, either. It was too...Throaty? He looked up and scanned the edge of the jungle, clutching the backpack’s strap tightly. Another bark, this time closer.

Nope.

Joey stood up and glanced around before he noted the under area of the building he had been resting beside. It’d have to work since the building’s door was missing and the windows broke. He dropped to his belly and started worming his way under the building, thankful for his small size. It had often prompted teasing for being short, but apparently, it might just help him survive. He grabbed the backpack and yanked it under the building with him.

After several minutes had passed with nothing spectacular happening, he wondered if he had freaked out over nothing. Then, from his left was a soft clicking noise. That side of the building had been overgrown by brush, obscuring his view. Then, from above, he heard the wood creaking and footsteps, followed by more clicking. A bark from his left, a low screeching hiss from above. So there were two? This idea was abandoned when he heard multiple footsteps from his left.

Above him was the sound of the building being rooted around in, with things being knocked over. Joey clutched the backpack tighter. From above was the sound of something being tapped on the floorboards. It reminded him of someone bored tapping their pencil on a desk. _Tap. Tap. Taptap._

One of the beasts finally moved into his line of sight. Sort of. He could only see its feet and it was enough for him to never want to meet the thing. Three toes, with the first innermost being tipped with a wicked, several inch long claw. Like most kids, he’d had an interest in dinosaurs. He couldn’t name all the species like some, but he knew the more common species. Raptor. That was a raptor.

As he stared at the dinosaur’s feet, his mind churned. When his was a lot younger, there’d been something in San Diego with a massive dinosaur rampaging. He couldn’t remember all the details, beyond pointing at the tv excitedly when the news had come on in the morning. Was this related?

His thoughts were interrupted when the raptor suddenly started sniffing the area where he had slid under the building at. He froze and stared wide eyed at the nose in front of him. It didn’t see him, but he had no idea if it could smell him. Probably could. The raptor clicked and suddenly, the rest of the group converged with one pawing at the ground. This was bad. This was very bad.

A sudden, loud sound of something landing on the building's roof caused him to yelp involuntarily. The raptors seemed to share his sentiment and took a collective step back while making hissing sounds. Whatever it was on the roof made a throaty, snarling hiss. Joey whimpered quietly at the banging above him. He was thankful that the attention was off of him, but he didn’t know if he liked the alternative any better.

One of the raptors let out a sharp sound of pain and prompted the other raptors to hiss. After a few more moments, the pack turned tail and fled. Joey made a soft sigh and dropped his head to his arms in relief, but tensed up again at the sound of something landing on the ground. Was the other thing going to finish him off?

Instead of his enacting his grisly demise, he only heard the sound of footsteps moving away and the undergrowth cracking as something moved through it. A few minutes later, the sound of the ambient birds and insects returned. Rather than leaving, he just laid there for a moment to try and calm his pounding heart. He was definitely going to die on this island. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when and how.

Finally, he crawled out from under the building and pulled the backpack back on. He gave the direction that the raptors had headed a wary look before he turned and started walking in the exact opposite direction. The last thing he wanted to do was to walk directly into certain death. While any direction was likely to suck, following after a pack of hungry raptors was the suckiest idea.

Much to his surprise, he didn’t encounter anything else that wanted to eat his face. Every now and then, he’d hear some sort of sound. Usually, it was a throaty snarl, but nothing ever showed up. It always came from different areas and since it always sounded the same, he assumed that something was following him. He just assumed that it saw him as a potential meal, but it wasn’t hungry enough yet. Goody.

As it got later, he stumbled across the ruins of some building. Between the fallen letters and letters still on the building, he guessed that it had once said ‘Genetics Lab’. This was the classic horror movie set up. The idiot teens stumble across some abandoned lab, wander in, and get their faces chewed off by some pissy freak monster that’s part rhino or some shit. So far, by avoiding all the different horror movie tropes, he’d stayed alive. He wanted to delay his inevitable demise as much as possible.

Unfortunately, it was getting dark and he needed shelter to avoid aforementioned inevitable demise. Maybe he could find an office closet and just hide in there till morning? As long as he didn’t go poking around and trying to figure out what nasties the lab churned out, he would be fine. Right?

Once more, he dug into the backpack and found the small flashlight. It was a cheap, $6 dollar thing from Wal-Mart. The small size had been important for his dad since he’d been able to hold it in his mouth while working on the plane engine. Joey’s shoulders slumped at the thought of his dad. All he could see was the man impaled in the pilot’s seat.

He clutched the flashlight tighter and turned it on. Nothing happened. He made a low noise of frustration as he unscrewed the back of the flashlight and dumped out the AA batteries, then replaced them with fresh ones. As soon as he started screwing the top back on, the flashlight flickered to life. He stared at the doorway, the light already illuminating the abandoned front desk.

Although, he already noticed something odd. While most of the front area was abandoned and covered with dirt or leaf litter, there was a clear path that had been cleared. Sure, it was still covered in dirt, but there wasn’t any jungle growth or leaves. Joey wouldn’t deny that he was overly curious at times and he stared at the past for a long few minutes.

Hell to the no.

Horror movie logic at play, once more. He went in the opposite direction, because the cleared path spelled certain doom in his mind. The fact that the building had that, made the idea of spending the night here even less appealing. Maybe if he stayed quiet, found an office closet, and left as soon as he woke up, he’d be fine. Or he’d end up dying a horrible death at the hands of some pissy monster.

His exploration soon led him to what seemed to be the offices. He hadn’t found much in the way of labs, but that was probably off in the direction he had avoided. A map on the wall caught his attention. In the upper left corner was the word ‘InGen’ in blocky letters. At the top, of the map in the middle was the island name ‘Isla Sorna’. That didn’t ring a bell, but the map gave a nice idea of where he was and where everything else was. The problem was, the place looked abandoned and he had no idea what was still around.

There was a place called ‘The Worker Village’. Maybe there’d be a radio there, or supplies, or hell. People. Finding people would be great. He’d need a map, and the wall map was way too big to carry with him. Maybe he could find some paper and a pencil so he could tr and draw it? He wasn’t the best artist, but it’d be better than nothing.

Something rustled.

Before he could react, something grabbed him from behind. Joey screamed and fought to escape, swinging the flashlight around wildly. He wasn’t sure if he hit anything, and barely registered the sensation of a sharp stab in his leg. Suddenly, he was free! Without even bothering to look behind him, he ran. He barely made it out of the office area before he landed on his face. His legs felt like jelly and the whole world had gone blurry. He saw a shoe in front of him and heard someone speaking, but it was as if he was underwater.

Then he was being picked up, but felt like he was floating. Everything was numb and just peachy. Sleep sounded nice. He blinked a few times, the world steadily going further out of focus till it was a haze. He’d just close his eyes for a few minutes, that’s all.


	4. Snake Eyes

His head felt like it was full of cotton. Joey blinked a few times at the bright light above him and realized someone was shining a light into his eyes. He tried to tell them to stop, but the words came out slurred and he had no idea if he was making any sense. The person moved away and said something, but the words were distorted. Since it didn’t make much sense, he just turned his head to the side and blearily watched his left hand come into focus. The back of it was bandaged. He couldn’t remember having hurt himself there, but maybe he had and hadn’t realized it.

Suddenly, someone crouched down beside him. A dark haired man with several days worth of stubble. For a moment, Joey’s heart soared that he’d been rescued...But something seemed...Off. The man was smiling, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes and he had a look that Joey had seen before on the kids at school. The kids who’d smile to your face and spread rumors when you left the room. He immediately felt on edge.

“My name is James, what’s your name?” The man spoke softly, but his voice lacked warmth.

“Joey.” Slowly, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and winced at how his right arm was pins and needles.

“Alright, Joey. Nice to meet you. Can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?” James held up two fingers.

“Two.”

“Excellent. I was worried since it looks like you hit your head,” He gestured at Joey before continuing, “How’d you get here?”

“My dad’s plane crashed...Last night, I think.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Are you the only one?” While Jame’s words were sympathetic, his tone was of a person merely going through the motions.

A pained look crossed Joey’s face before he looked away and down at the cot he was sitting at. He picked at the threads of the blanket under him for a moment before he finally nodded. After a moment, he looked back to James and the man almost looked pleased. Quite honestly, he had the feeling that he’d ended up in a very bad situation.

“What are you doing here?” Joey finally asked, and glanced past the man at the equipment and jars with deformed looking things in them.

James gave a grin that could only be described as sharklike. “Building a better dinosaur. InGen laid a solid foundation, but I’ve improved upon their work.”

Joey could only stare at the guy. How had he managed to walk into the lair of an honest to God, mad scientist? Things could only go south from here. Maybe it’d be a good idea to keep the guy talking while he tried to spot an escape route? “You made the dinosaurs?”

The man stood up and laughed, as if the question was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “No, they were InGen’s doing. I appropriated the underground labs for my own use once the company abandoned the island.”

“Ok, so...How are you making them better?”

“Hammond wanted a zoological park and ignored the greater applications of dinosaurs. Warfare. Of course, the primary issue with dinosaurs is how untrainable they are and how long it takes to grow them from egg to adulthood. Very expensive. But what if there were a way to...Jump past that, with the added bonus of being able to follow orders?” James paced as he walked, seemingly eager to ramble about his life’s work. Then he paused and stared at Joey, “I doubt you’ll understand, but let me tell you what I’m doing here…”

He crouched down in front of the boy again and smiled, “I discovered how to alter the genetic structure of already born animals. A specially altered virus that rewrites the genes of whatever host animal it’s introduced into...Including humans. Now, the downside of this, so far, is that it doesn’t work too well in adults...But thanks to the cocktail of hormones adolescents have? It works _perfectly_ with them. I think I’ve ironed out the last little kinks in this most recent attempt.”

All color drained from Joey’s face as the man went on. This guy was insane. “So..You…”

James gave a single nod, “While you were sedated. Easier that way. If all goes to plan? Oh, you’re going to be _perfect_.” He leaned forward to peer at Joey who leaned back immediately. However, before anything else could be said, the lights flickered and dimmed.

Standing up, James looked up at the ceiling with a frown and Joey took this as his only chance. He leaned back and slammed his foot into the man’s crotch. A second later, James was hunched over in pain. Not wanting to waste his chance, Joey bolted. As he ran, he shoved things over. Jars, carts, equipment. If it could be knocked over and potentially slow down James, into the floor it went.

Behind him, the mad doctor yelled, but Joey didn’t pay attention. Out of the room he ran and he skidded to a stop to try and figure out where to go. Down the hall, he heard a sharp whistle and spotted the door to the stairwell closing. He took off running, trying to ignore the ache in his legs and burning in his chest. By the time he reached the stairwell, he was gulping down air and coughing, but he couldn’t stop now. He had to get out.

He pulled open the door and started jogging up the stairs. Above him, someone else was also running up the stairs. He had no idea if this person was honestly going to be an ally or not, but it was better than staying in the lab.

“Come on!” The person above him yelled, the voice while young and male, was distorted by the echo the stairwell caused. Still, Joey didn’t have to be told twice.

By the time he reached the top, he struggled to breathe and was coughing more than anything. There was also no sight of the other person. It was better than being downstairs. He followed the path back towards the front of the lab, noting that it was daylight again. However, someone poked their head in and _pst_ ’d at him.

It wasn’t as if he had much choice. He made his way over and suddenly had his arm grabbed before being dragged along. In the late morning light, he was able to better see his rescuer...And it made his stomach twist in fear.

The other wasn’t much taller than him, maybe by an inch or two. His hair blonde, shoulder length, and shaggy. That was the _normal_ part of him. His skin was a patchwork of human and dinosaur. Joey was still gawking when he was tugged into the undergrowth and it did nothing to quell his fears.

While mostly human in appearance, the other had raptorish feet and clawed hands, but the face was the more horrific part. His face was predominantly covered in human skin, but his skull had started to take on a slight dinosaurish appearance with the beginnings of a snout. The near perpetual grin showing too sharp teeth was terrifying to Joey.

James had mentioned ‘this most recent attempt’, which insinuated that there had been others. Honestly, Joey had brushed off the claims as insane ramblings, but here he was...Staring at some Frankenstein’d person. The other held a clawed finger to his mouth, as an indication to be silent. Moments later, James stumbled through the open doorway and glared around, searching for them. After what seemed to be an eternity, the man cursed and went back inside.

Joey let out a long sigh and rubbed his face. A second later, his left wrist was grabbed and the back of his hand examined by the other. He couldn’t help but to freeze, not knowing what was planned. However, his wrist was quickly released and he was given an almost baleful look.

“He already got you. You’re going to change.” His voice was somewhat guttural and somewhat distorted, likely a result of the changes to his skull.

“Who are-- _What_ are you? What the fuck is going on?” Everything was coming to a head and Joey was honestly freaked out over what had happened so far.

His questions caused the other to bare his teeth in a snarl and lash out, swiping his claws at his face. Joey jerked back, but still felt the bite of a claw over the bridge of his nose. Seconds later, the warmth of blood trickled down his cheeks. He scrambled backwards before turning around to take off running.

His ankle was grabbed and he was pulled back slightly.

“Don’t go! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, please!”

He glanced over his shoulder at the creature who sat there, hunched up and looking...Upset.

“Michael. My name’s Michael. Don’t go.” His voice had taken on a pleading tone and he looked up at Joey, “I didn’t mean to.” He repeated, softer this time.

“...Joey.” He turned back around and stared at Michael for a moment, until he saw that his stares had been noticed. Then, he looked away.

“We should go...Before you get sick.” He got up to his feet and offered Joey his hand, “It’s a bit of a hike and I don’t know how much time you have.”

Joey hesitated for a moment before taking the offered hand and allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. “Sick? What are you talking about?”

“That bastard...He does things to people. Makes them change. Made me change, and he did it to you. I-I just remember getting sick and I thought I was going to die. And you’re gonna change.”

“Like...You?” Joey was struggling to keep up with Michael. Between his hiking yesterday, at least he assumed yesterday, the minimal food and water, and his dash for freedom, he was already feeling pretty shitty.

“I don’t know. I’m one of his earlier tries. Living tries, anyway. He calls me ‘RH-23’.” He glanced over his shoulder at Joey who had a confused look, “It means Raptor Hybrid number 23. I’m his 23rd attempt. I don’t know what number you are. There were a couple after me...They...Didn’t make it.”

None of this was really what Joey wanted to hear. Either he was going to turn into a freakshow, or he was going to die. His stomach tightened and twisted, violently expressing its unhappiness with the lack of food and the stress he felt. While he finished throwing up stomach acid and spitting, Michael made a soft concerned noise.

“It’s moving fast.” Then he made a quiet clicking noise at Joey’s head shake.

“I’ve barely eaten since I’ve gotten here.” He replied between coughs. Finally, he stood up straight and wrapped an arm around his stomach so that he could start walking again. “I lost my backpack, too. It had food in it.”

“I’ll be able to get you some food.”

The trek to where Michael ‘lived’, a cave hidden behind a waterfall, took longer than either of the two would have liked. Joey was running on empty and was barely able to put one foot in front of the other due to the hunger cramps and nausea. When they finally reached the cave, he managed to get a drink and then all but collapsed into the bed of grass and leaves. It was a far cry from what he was used to, but at this point, he didn’t care: he was just exhausted.

Michael lingered for a few moments before leaving with promises of returning with food. While he waited, Joey napped. It really didn’t make him feel any better and when he was woken up, he just felt worse. Although, he wasn’t sure if that was just him or the fact that the food offering was _raw_. Michael seemed quite proud of himself, despite the blood smeared on his pants, shirt, and arms.

Joey supposed that he couldn’t really expect something from a 7/11, but cooking it would have been great.

Michael wrinkled his upper lip at Joey’s expression, “It won’t matter. You won’t be human for much longer. You already smell different. Besides, if you don’t eat you’re not going to last long either way.”

This didn’t really convince Joey and he stared at the remains of, what he assumed, was a chicken sized dinosaur that was being offered to him. Reluctantly, he took it with hands shaking from hunger. Maybe if he ate it quickly and didn’t focus on the texture or taste it wouldn’t be so bad. He hesitated a moment longer before pulling small chunks of muscle off the formerly living dinosaur and popping them in his mouth, quickly swallowing them down. It was overall pretty damn unappetizing, but he was also pretty damn hungry.

He didn’t eat a lot of it, but just enough to soothe his stomach. Joey was certain that if he ate any more, he’d just end up throwing it back up. He passed it to Michael who unashamedly just tore into the leftovers, ravenously scarfing it down. This caused him to stare at the other for a long few moments before he just got up to wash his hands off. That was something he could have gone without seeing.

When he returned, Michael had finished and was chewing on what appeared to be a bone of some sort. “How did you get here? My dad’s plane crashed. We were on our way to Coasta Rico when we hit a storm.”

Michael was quiet for a moment, the only sound that came from him was the bone clicking against his teeth. “I was kidnapped.” Before Joey could reply, he added, “I don’t want to talk about it. You should rest. You’re not looking too good.”

Joey couldn’t really blame him for not wanting to talk about how he ended up on the island. He didn’t really like the idea of expanding on what happened after the plane crash. So, he just nodded. However, the claim that he wasn’t ‘looking to good’ made him frown. He just felt sore, but that could be explained away from all the activity he’d been doing. Still, the idea of rest wasn’t a bad one. Despite the nap he had taken, he still felt tired.

“Yeah, ok. Just...I don’t know.” He sighed and laid down again. Despite the noise from the waterfall, he fell asleep.

The next thing he knew, he was being shook awake with someone yelling his name. Immediately, he struggled to suck in air, but only managed a hacking, wet cough. He couldn’t breathe! Joey flopped onto his stomach and tried to breathe while simultaneously coughing. His inhaled breathe were nasty, popping, wheezes. Something smacked him on the back, hard. Pain radiated out over his back, but it seemed to have helped loosen up whatever was in his chest. He coughed a few more times and nearly threw up when he managed to cough out a massive glob of mucus.

With a wheeze, he slumped onto his side and tried to catch his breath. Every part of his body ached and he felt simultaneously hot and cold. Someone said his name again and all he could do was make a soft noise before slipping into sleep once more. A lot of it was a fever dream, and he couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t. Now and then, he’d catch glimpses of Michael when he tried to force him to eat food or drink water. Other times, he was shook awake because he wasn’t breathing.

After several days, the fever finally broke. Feeling exhausted, he tried to burrow down in the bed but felt anxious. It didn’t smell like him. This only served to confuse him, as did the sensation of everything around him being _louder_. Finally, he opened his eyes and was greeted by vivid colors. Joey pushed himself up into a sitting position, ignoring how his head spun at the action. Everything was colorful, it was as if he was seeing for the first time. Sure, he still saw the same old colors, but he felt like he’d been viewing life through a dirty window and now that window had been cleaned.

Michael made a soft noise and moved over to him, prompting Joey to spit out a sudden hiss of warning and scramble backwards. He felt threatened and honestly a bit scared. Things were suddenly different and he wasn’t sure how to process what was happening. After a moment, Michael tilted his head slightly and made a soft, reassuring warble.

“Joey.” He snapped his fingers, causing the other to flinch. “Snap out of it. You survived.”

Slowly, Joey rubbed his face and then blinked a few times before focusing on Michael, “That..Was weird.”

Michael cracked a smile, “You’ll get used to it. Your eyes are different. They’re all green and raptory.”

“Everything looks different. It’s just..Vivid. I don’t know how to explain it.” He sighed and gave Michael a slight smile of his own. “I...Think I’ll be okay. I’m hungry though.”

“Good thing I went hunting. You probably need the food, man. You pretty much just slept these past few days. I was kinda getting worried.” Michael got back to his feet and went towards the front of the cave to fetch the meat he had harvested. When he returned, he offered it all to Joey, “I’ll take the leftovers. You need it more than I do and I can always go hunting for more later.”

Joey hesitated for a moment since he didn’t want Michael to go hungry, but at the reassurances, he took the meat. He didn’t feel the hesitation he had previously. It actually...Smelled good? Maybe it just had to do with having not eaten. Without saying anything, he tore into it, much like Michael had a few days prior. When he was done, he passed the remains back to the other and got up to wash his hands. However, he ended up gawking at the outside world. It was shockingly vivid and distracted him from what he’d planned on doing.

Finally, he blinked a few times and started back towards the bed, then winced a bit. “How many times did you hit my back? It hurts.”

“Only two or three times during that one time.” A look of confusion and concern had formed on Michael’s face.

“You’ve gotta be--” He cut off with a gasped sound of pain as the dull ache suddenly radiated down his spine sharply. Briefly, he doubled over before trying to make it back to the bed. His legs gave out under him and he made a choked sound. It felt like he was being turned inside out. “It hurts!”

The horrific sound of grinding, popping bones filled his ears and he screamed.


	5. Born Anew

The grinding of bones filled his ears and seemed to reverberate down his spine to his toes. Joey sagged over to his side and curled up to try and seek escape from the agony he felt, but nothing helped and every movement he made caused a fresh wave of pain. He screamed again as he fought to escape whatever was happening to him; the sound he made ended in a screeching keen. It steadily became harder and harder to move, his limbs refused to work as they should; the joints moved wrongly compared to what he was used to. In his panic, he flailed around and barely registered the sensation of claws raking across his face.

As suddenly as the pain had started, it faded away leaving Joey huffing out his breathes through flared nostrils. Even as the last bits of the pain left him, all he could hear was his heart pounding in his ears. This place wasn’t _his_. It belonged to another. He let out a soft, huffy warble as he slowly opened his eyes to look around. Then, he struggled to get up off his side, but found himself confused on how his limbs didn’t quite work the way they should.

Still, after some work he managed to get onto his stomach, but remained as flat against the ground as he could manage, even as he still tried to gather his limbs under him. Slowly, he looked around, ignoring how the bottom of his jaw scraped against the ground. Movement out of the corner of his eye caused him to whip his head to the side. His vision was still a bit blurry and when the sight of a humanoid finally came into focus, he opened his mouth and let out a throaty hiss of warning before surging to his feet, unsteadily. He managed to take a few wobbly steps backwards, still hissing, but felt as if he’d topple over at any moment. The humanoid hadn’t come any closer, but he still felt threatened and the rapid tapping of his toe claws betrayed this.

Michael had felt helpless to help Joey as the other boy changed, the screams reminiscent of the sounds he had made when he’d gone through his own partial change. However, it became increasingly clear that Joey’s changes were much, much different than his own. He wasn’t sure how long it took, but what he _did_ know was that he had an upset, frightened raptor in what amounted to his living room. For the moment, he remained silent, not entirely sure what to do.

Joey definitely looked different from the other raptors on the island, so Michael wasn’t sure what the bastard doctor had used. While the male raptors tended to be a sort of greyish color and the females a light brown, Joey was neither. Instead, he was a dark brown with lighter brown mottles. Michael wasn’t sure, but he thought that he could see faint green stripes, but decided to wave that off as a trick of the light. To further compound things Joey seemed leggier and lankier than a raptor of similar size. All and all, it confused Michael: he looked like a raptor but he didn’t.

Once things seemed to have settled, he took a step forward towards Joey, only to have the raptor suddenly focus on him and let out a warning hiss. He took a step back when the other suddenly surged to his feet and backed away all while making more warning noises. Everything about Joey screamed fear and Michael wasn’t entirely sure if the other was thinking like a human. While he was tougher than the standard human thanks in part to his...Changes, he knew he wouldn’t stand up to a raptor very well. Although, considering how Joey was swaying, he suspected that he was more of a danger to himself than anything.

Michael took another, slow, careful step towards Joey and made a soft sound that he hoped was reassuring. Then again, he also didn’t know how keyed up the other was. He froze when the opened mouthed hissing turned into a snarl. Apparently, his attempts to calm Joey hadn’t been appreciated.

“Joey, it’s me. You don’t need to attack me.” He stated, softly, as he watched the muscles in Joey’s legs tense up. Everything about the raptor said that he was going to attack. In preparation, Michael tensed up as well. Seconds later, Joey lunged and Michael dove out of the way. Then, he snorted at the other landing on his side when he attempted to spin around. He chose to use this moment to put some space between them.

While it was pretty funny to see Joey flail around to get back on his feet, it also brought the realization that he was getting better with moving around. He needed to get the other thinking more like a human, if that was even possible. Michael had seen other subjects go raptor and never come out of it. Though, they hadn’t quite looked like Joey: they all had looked like the island raptors.

He grimaced at the snarling hiss he heard, knowing full well that it was an aggressive noise. This time, Joey stalked towards him at an angle, his body curled and his neck S’d in preparation to lash out. He was quickly learning to move around and this wasn't something that boded for Michael. There was little in the cave that he could use to defend himself; throwing rocks were more likely to further anger Joey. Sure, he had claws on his fingers, but they were pathetic compared to what the other had.

“Joey, come on.” He begged, but knew it wouldn’t do much good. Once again, Joey charged and Michael scrambled out of the way. Much like before, the raptor attempted to spin around and lost his balance. However, unlike before, he slammed the side of his head against the ground and laid there, stunned. Michael slowly moved over but then flinched at the groggy snarl.

“Joey?”

Already, Joey was trying to get back to his feet and was snapping at Michael. However, he was still stunned and moving slowly. At that point, Michael chose to do something very, very ballsy. While Joey was still struggling to get up, Michael jumped onto his back. The action was enough to cause Joey to go back down to the ground, but Michael wasn’t done. Before the other could react, he wrapped his arms around his neck and squeezed in a poor attempt at a choke hold. While he only wanted to knock him out, he wouldn’t be opposed to killing him. At this point in time, Michael didn’t have much attachment to Joey and his personal safety ranked higher than the life of someone he barely knew.

He hated that idea of being alone again, but he hated the idea of being dead even more. Beneath him, Joey struggled to get up but was also coughing and gasping for air. This only caused Michael to tighten his grip further. After another moment, the raptor went limp and he released his grasp, then clumsily fumbled to check for a pulse. It was still there and thudded harshly against his fingers.

Michael rolled off of Joey’s back and landed on his side where he stared at the unconscious raptor. If Joey was in there, he wasn’t sure how he’d react. For a moment, he considered the idea of just going ahead and killing him to save him the potential misery. Yet at the same time, he tried to cling to the idea that Joey would snap out of it when he woke up. Maybe the change had just freaked him out too much. All he could really do was wait.

His head ached, much like that time he’d fallen off the slide when he was a little kid. Joey made a soft wince at the sensation and slowly opened his eyes. Immediately, he felt confused. He was on his side, his head hurt, his neck felt sore, and things didn’t feel right. Someone said his name. He made a soft sound that quickly cut off when he realized that it didn’t sound right. It was guttural, and not at all human.

“Joey?”

That was...Michael, right? He shifted himself to his stomach and turned his head to look towards the sound of his name. In doing so, he caught a good glimpse of his body and promptly _squawked_. No, no. What happened? Why wasn’t he human? Michael had mentioned a ‘change’, but he had thought the whole weirdly intense senses would be the end of it. Not that he’d turn into a fucking raptor. Michael was saying his name again.

“Joey! It’s ok. Look at me.”

He made a soft warbling noise under his breath and looked to Michael who carefully walked over to him. What was going on? He just wanted to be human, not a raptor. A sharp crunch in the back of his head caused him to scream and launch himself forward. The crunch changed into a grind and spread throughout his body. It didn’t hurt, not like the first time. More than anything it was closer to the sensation of needing to stretch and pop joints. Uncomfortable, but not painful. Still, the noises his bones made as they shifted and reformed, vanished only to be replaced with different bones entirely, made him want to throw up.

Still, after a few minutes, he laid on his side as a human. He kept his eyes tightly shut and panted. Now he felt utterly exhausted...And cold. The floor of the cave was cold. It took him a moment longer to realize he was nude. All of the different horror movie stereotypes came flooding into his mind. The whole ‘person turns into a monster and shreds their clothes’, thing. He opened his eyes and, sure enough, on the other side of the cave were the remains of his ripped up clothes. As an afterthought, he curled up slightly and felt himself flush red in embarrassment.

Michael made a relieved laugh, “We both got the same stuff, man. I’m just happy you’re alive. I think I might have some spare stuff. Or at least a blanket.”

Joey looked over at the other hybrid as he got up to go towards the back of the cave. “How long was I out? What happened?”

“Couple hours. It’s getting close to dark. After you changed, you went all pissy raptor and tried to eat my face. You finally smacked your head and I choked you out.” Michael commented while he rummaged. After a moment, he made a soft ‘aha’ noise and returned with a blanket that he tossed on top of Joey.

“I just remember pain...Lots of pain and confusion. I sort of remember feeling like I was being attacked, but everything is hazy.” Joey replied as he started to pull the blanket around him. After a moment, he stood up with the blanket wrapped tightly around him. He shuffled over to the bed and sat down, but then looked at Michael with a hint of a grin threatening to break through.

“Dude. This means I can change into a fucking dinosaur. How cool is that?”

“Pretty cool, I guess.” Michael glanced away. While he was happy that Joey had survived and snapped out of the feralness, he couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealousy over how lucky the other was. Joey was able to shapeshift while he was just stuck as a freak.

“It’s still a mess, though. I...Don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I mean, I guess I have a leg up on surviving on this island, but I don’t know where to start. I’m just a kid from the burbs.” Joey looked down at his feet before he looked back up at Michael.

“You’ve been here awhile, haven’t you? You know how to find food and stuff and survive.”

“You want me to teach you?” Michael looked back over to Joey who nodded.

“I mean. You were able to hunt and brought me food. I don’t know what’s safe to eat.” Joey replied and then snorted, “My idea of dinner is mac & cheese. Pretty sure you can’t find that growing on a tree. Besides. That fucko is still out there and I think it’ll be safer if we stick together.”

Truth be told, Joey was terrified at the idea of just being left to his own devices. As cool as the idea of shapeshifting was, he was being entirely honest: he didn’t know shit about survival. Sure, he could probably do the basics from what he had gleaned from movies, but that didn’t always translate into real life. Plus the whole idea of being turned into...Whatever he was now kind of threw a lot of things right out the window.

At this point, Michael couldn’t help but crack a smile. A freak he might be, but Joey was entirely correct. He didn’t know a lot about the island. The smile faded a bit at the mention of James. There was no way that the man could find out about Joey’s change. He’d hunt them both down to the ends of the earth if he had to. Whatever the man planned to do didn’t bode well for either of them. Finally, he gave Joey a nod.

“I’ll teach you...In a few days. You need to rest, I think. Plus I think that you still need to get the hang of the whole shapeshifting thing. When you were a raptor you were barely able to walk without falling over. You probably need to get the basics of walking down before I teach you to hunt. I’m not really sure how much I’ll actually be able to teach you considering our...Differences.”

Joey felt a surge of guilt. He’d probably made Michael feel bad by being overjoyed about the shapeshifting. The other didn’t have that ability, and honestly looked kind of horrific if he was completely honest. After a moment, he shrugged, “You can still teach me. Probably wouldn’t hurt to know how to hunt as a human. Pretty sure raptors can’t climb trees and steal bird eggs or whatever.”

“Between the two of us, we could probably rig up better traps.” Michael stated, suddenly. “I was always limited on what I could do because what I wanted to do was more of a two person type deal.” By this point, he was grinning, the sight unsettling due to how it showed a mouthful of not quite human and not quite raptor teeth.

Joey nodded a few times. Maybe this whole thing wouldn’t be too bad if he treated it like some camping adventure. It helped that he wasn’t absolutely alone, now. At least he didn’t have to worry about school now, he supposed. The only downside was that he couldn’t finish his pokemon game or watch movies anymore. Still, the overall risk of him dying seemed to have dramatically gone down. He was pulled out of his thoughts by his stomach making an angry grumble over the lack of food in recent hours. Michael snorted loudly and got off the rock he had perched on.

“I agree with your stomach. I’m hungry too. I’ll be back in awhile.” He stretched and gave Joey a slight wave before he headed out of the cave.

Once he was gone, Joey looked down at his hands and lightly flexed them. Suddenly, his heart was pounding in his chest as he focused. For the third time that day, he heard the popping of joints and bones. His fingers briefly spasmed before deforming and lengthening; the nails twisting and thickening into claws. The skin darkened and became coarse. As soon as he stopped focusing, so did the change.

It honestly wasn’t pleasant. He rolled his shoulders and winced at the popping noise that he heard. Everything felt..Awkward and uncomfortable. A vague ache, maybe. He wasn’t sure how to put it into words beyond: he didn’t like it. After a moment longer, he focused on the notion of his hands being human and they sluggishly returned back to their former state. It didn’t feel as draining as when he had gone from a raptor back to a human, but he felt more exhausted. Maybe a nap would be a good idea.

The next thing he knew, Michael was shaking him awake so that he could eat. Joey barely mumbled out ‘thanks’ before he ripped into the meat. Any hesitation over the idea of eating raw meat was gone. He was hungry and it smelled good. That was the only thing that mattered to him. Once he was done, he got up long enough to rinse off his hands and face, then get a drink.

When he got back to the bed, he wrapped himself up and curled up on his side. A moment later, Michael flopped down next to him and did much the same thing...Then elbowed him in the back and grumbled for him to scoot over a bit. Joey shoved back a bit and they went back and forth for a bit like this until Michael finally flopped over with his back pressed up against Joey’s.

“...Bed hog.” Michael snipped.

“Tiny fucking bed.” Joey shot back.

“Not used to guests.”

“Well, I think I live here now.” Was Joey’s retort.

“I’m not sharing my toys.”

“I’ll make my own.” Joey tried to remain entirely serious, but failed and the whole act devolved into a contagious case of laughter.

“Night, Joey.”

“Night, Michael.”


	6. Welcome to the Jungle

When Joey woke up the next morning, Michael had already left. With some confusion, he climbed off of the bed and wrapped the blanket around himself. Between the coolness of the morning and the constant flow of air from the waterfall, he felt chilled. Despite the chill in the air, he felt…Good. The aches and pains that he’d felt since arriving on the island were gone. For a moment, he wondered if yesterday had just been a nightmare, but the shredded clothes still in the corner said otherwise. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure what to think about it all. About the only thing he really knew was that his life had dramatically changed, but he didn’t know if it was for better or for worse.

Despite the fact that Michael wasn’t around, he didn’t want to stay in the cave; he wanted to explore. He wouldn’t venture far away and honestly? The waterfall was pretty hard to miss. He walked back to the bed where he put the blanket back. Then after a moment of hesitation, he focused on changing, just like he had last night.

The sensation was strange, to say the least. Overall, it felt like he needed to really stretch. Though the sound and feeling of everything popping and grinding as his bones moved freaked him out. It didn’t hurt, not like the first time, but it gave him the feeling that it _should_ hurt. Still, within a few moments he wasn’t human any longer. The problem with that was that he was suddenly teetering back and forth. His center of gravity and everything else had changed drastically. He stood there, legs splayed wide apart in an attempt to keep his balance.

After a few minutes, he took a step and nearly fell on his face. He made a frustrated huff; the movies always made this look easy. A lot of the issue was that he was used to being flat footed and now he was needing to stand on his toes. He took another step forward; this one was a bit steadier than the first but he was still horribly unbalanced. While he realized that he was essentially relearning to walk, he found himself growing increasingly angry at how he was struggling.

It shouldn’t be this hard.

He tapped one of his toe claws as he considered his situation. Maybe trying to stand normally would be a better idea instead of trying to walk? He slowly moved his legs close together so that he wasn’t standing with his feet so far apart. The sensation of his body pitching forward caused him to make a concerned warble, then he panicked and stumbled. However, he managed to catch himself and froze in the position for a moment. He didn’t feel as off balance now.

Then the idiocy of the whole thing smacked him in the head: he’d been trying to walk like a human. He was a raptor now, wasn’t he? They walked completely different. He carefully moved his foot back to where it had been, but kept the ‘hunched over’ posture that his brain screamed against. Rather than falling forward onto his face like he feared, he felt a lot more stable. He stood there for a few moments before he took a step; things still felt…Off.

Finally, Joey sighed and tried to relax. He was having to relearn how to walk. Falling was bound to happen. He took another step and then another. Each one found him feeling a bit surer of himself, and after several more steps, he stood outside of the cave. He blinked rapidly in the morning light and still felt off guard with how vivid the greenery was around him. It didn’t help that his senses were suddenly assaulted with a deluge of information.

In the undergrowth to his left he heard the rustling and soft chirps of either birds or small dinosaurs. He could smell the undertone of Michael around the entrance of the cave. A part of him somehow knew that the scent was several hours old, meaning the other had left at dawn. He carefully made his way towards the bushes, feeling curious about what was moving around inside it. As he approached, the chirps quieted down.

After a moment, he reached out to bat at the bushes with a hand in hopes of flushing out whatever was inside. He found it strange that he still had four fingers and a thumb. Shouldn’t he only have three fingers? Something squawked in the bushes and caught his attention before a trio of small dinosaurs scampered out. Curiously, he tilted his head to get a better look at them before he carefully leaned down to sniff of one of the creatures. It hissed at him before suddenly nipping his nose defensively. He jerked his head back, but the thing had a good hold of his nostril.  Joey shook his head in an attempt to knock the thing off.

It went flying, but not without taking a small chunk of his nose with it. The thing hopped back up and angrily chirped before darting towards him. He took a step back with a growl and snapped at the small dinosaur. The angry chirps suddenly turned into squeals of pain as his teeth sunk in deep. Without a second thought he tossed the thing into the back of his mouth, teeth snapping down on it several more times, and swallowed it down. The remaining two scattered, not wanting to share the same fate as their friend.

It took him a moment to realize what he’d done; the taste of warm blood still in his mouth. On one hand, he felt somewhat disgusted but on the other…Hadn’t he sort of done the same thing last night? He wasn’t exactly human anymore, was he? Besides, he had basically just taken care of the need for breakfast.

“I was gonna offer you breakfast, but I guess you took care of that.” Michael commented from behind him.

Joey turned around, somehow managing not to fall over as he did so, and then made an inquisitive noise. Honestly, he still felt a bit hungry. After a moment, he carefully stepped to Michael and lightly nipped at one of the small dinosaurs slung across his shoulder. He hadn’t quite figured out how big he was and didn’t want to accidentally knock the other over.

“Still hungry?” Michael asked and laughed at the head nodding. It honestly looked absurd, but they didn’t exactly have a clear way of communicating. “Alright, here.”

Joey carefully took the dinosaur from Michael and mimicked what he’d done earlier. While it didn’t sate all of his hunger, it took care of most of it. He tilted his head and made a soft noise of curiosity. Honestly, he wanted to explore but wasn’t sure how to ask…If it was even possible.

Michael sat down to eat and seemed to think for a moment before he spoke again, “You need some clothes. You said your dad’s plane crashed, right? Do you think you could lead me there?”

The question was a good one, but he honestly didn’t know. So, he simply made an uncertain warble. He wasn’t opposed to the idea since it’d let him get used to walking around. As it was, he was pacing a slow circle around Michael who had to duck a few times to avoid being hit by the tip of Joey’s tail. After a minute, something in the undergrowth caught his attention and he started wandering off to investigate.

However, behind him, Michael made a sudden bark which prompted Joey to spin around with a trill of acknowledgement. Despite how well he’d been walking so far, this sudden movement put him off balance and he promptly fell over. Immediately, he let out an alarm squawk but shut up a moment after when Michael about fell over from laughing. Joey snorted and made a throaty hiss as he climbed up to his feet again.

“Holy crap. I didn’t actually think you’d respond to that.” Michael giggled slightly and tossed the remains of his meal into the undergrowth before he got up to clean the blood off of his hands and arms. However, it was his turn to squawk loudly when Joey suddenly headbutted him into the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall. He climbed out of the water shivering a bit. “…I guess I deserved that.”

This time, Joey was the one laughing. It was a strange, guttural chittering that only got worse at the vulgar gesture Michael made as he went into the cave. A moment later, he returned with the remains of Joey’s shirt.

“Here, smell this and see if you can figure out your trail.”

Joey lightly sniffed of the shirt. He recognized it as himself…But it was different than what he ‘saw’ as himself now. He took a step back and shook his head at the sudden information the scent told him. Male. Young. Stressed and sick. He snorted and leaned down to sniff the ground. Michael. The dinosaurs from earlier. Other scents he couldn’t discern. Consciously, he didn’t really know what he was doing, but something deep down did. He latched onto that part of himself.

Slowly, he sifted through the scents and found the one he was hunting for. It was old but still there. He took a few steps forward, nostrils still hovering above the ground. Then, he started walking along the path him and Michael had taken several days ago. Behind him, Michael followed.

The trail took them back towards the lab, but he skirted around the lab and picked the trail back up a short way away. He remembered this path and how it led to the runway. After a bit, he broke into a slow trot, much to Michael’s unhappiness. Honestly, he felt considerably more confident in his balance and thought he was ready for something faster than a walk.

When they reached the runway, he circled around the shack to pick up the trail again. It was buried under the smell of raptors with a touch of…Michael. He stretched up to sniff at the roof of the building, nearly falling over in the process, before he looked to Michael and made an inquisitive chirp.

“Yeah…That was me. I was trying to scavenge when I saw the raptor pack take off after something. I’ll sometimes follow after them and eat after them when they take down something big. Easier than hunting myself.” He glanced away for a moment. “…Saw you before they did and I decided to scare them off. Since they run faster than me, I got here after they did. After I scared them, I followed you to the lab and tried to scare you in a different direction but it didn’t work.”

Joey supposed that he could have blamed Michael for what happened to him, and it was a bit obvious to him that the other _did_ blame himself. The other could have tried harder to scare him, sure…But he didn’t blame him. He wasn’t stupid. The island was literally covered with dinosaurs and there was no way he would have been able to survive otherwise. It was a realization he’d made early on. Finally, he did his best attempt at a shrug before he turned to continue on the trail. After a moment, Michael followed after him.

“So…You’re not mad at me?”

After taking a few more steps, Joey paused and half turned towards the other hybrid, then shook his head. Honestly, Michael had likely saved him from a gory, teeth filled death; he couldn’t be mad about that. At least now he had a much better chance at survival than he would have had otherwise. He turned back around and started off at a trot, however, Michael protested from behind him.

“Slow down! I can’t keep up with you. Long legged bastard.”

Honestly, the idea of walking annoyed Joey more than anything, but he still slowed back down to a walk and continued after the trail. As they got closer, he started becoming increasingly aware of the scent of something rotting…And Joey had the distinct feeling he knew what it was. When he finally reached where the plane was, the smell was nearly overpowering. He glanced at Michael before looking up with a quiet warble towards the white belly of the plane.

“I can get up there. Just watch out for stuff falling, alright?” Michael walked to the tree and started climbing up it, using his claws to rapidly make his way up to the canopy where Joey lost sight of him.

He stretched up to try and see where Michael had gone, but all he heard was the rustling of tree limbs. Honestly, he didn’t really like standing up straight; it put him off balance…At least until he dumbly remembered the fact that he had a tail. When he shifted his tail downwards, he found himself having a great deal more balance. Quietly, Joey wondered if a lot of his problem was overthinking. He was trying to learn everything instead of just…Doing. There were a lot of little niggles in the back of his mind on what to do, but he was largely ignoring them. The sound of Michael above him broke him out of his thoughts.

“Oh, Jesus Christ that’s nasty!”

Joey already had a good idea of what Michael had found. It’d been a few days, hadn’t it? With the jungle heat and humidity, what was…Left couldn’t be very nice. He made a soft warble under his breath and started pacing as he waited. Above him, he could hear the faint sounds of movement and the creaking of the plane. Suddenly, Michael yelled something out and Joey barely had a chance to jump out of the way of a falling suitcase. Unlike earlier, he didn’t fall over…Barely. A moment later, two more suitcases followed. It was honestly a wonder they didn’t break from how far they’d fallen.

Michael climbed down a short time later and had a bit of an apologetic look on his face, but didn’t say anything about what he’d found in the plane above. Instead, he started digging in one of the suitcases. “I can’t carry everything myself…But I think you’re stronger than I am right now.”

At Joey’s inquisitive noise, he held up a pair of pants before he started using it to tie the two larger suitcases together. When he was done, he grabbed a second pair since he wasn’t sure the first would distribute the weight evenly. “I think you can carry two of the suitcases if I tie them together and put them on your back. I can carry yours since it’s smaller.”

When the makeshift sling was held up, Joey eyed it with a hefty amount of uncertainty before he crouched down, using one ‘hand’ to help balance himself as Michael dragged the fabric over his head and onto his back. He remained in the position for a moment as the other adjusted things and turned his head to watch. Once he was given the all clear, he stood up but then nipped at one of the pant legs where it dug into his back. Michael tugged at it to shift it slightly, relieving some of the uncomfortable pressure on his shoulder blade.

He took a step forward and made an unhappy grumble at how the suitcases thumped against his sides. Still, the other had been right: they really didn’t have a way of getting the suitcases back to the cave. Once Michael had picked up the suitcase, they started back ‘home’. By this point, it was midday and the heat was in full force, meaning the other was absolutely miserable.

“I try to stay around the cave during midday.” Michael panted when they stopped under a tree. “We don’t have to follow the path you took. I know my way back, I just didn’t know where you crashed at.”

Joey nodded and gently nudged the other boy’s back to indicate for him to lead the way. He was waved away with a mumbled ‘lemme rest a sec’. This left him to stand around and finally, he grunted as he laid down on his stomach. No point in having the suitcases dig into his back longer than he needed. He still wasn’t too sure about things, but he was starting to feel a lot more comfortable in the raptor form.

“I still can’t figure out why you look so different.” Michael commented, then further explained when Joey looked towards him. “The other raptors are greyish or brownish. They don’t really have a pattern. You’re brown with this weird mottling.”

Then, he leaned forward to lightly trace something down Joey’s side, “And I think you have green stripes. They’re kinda faint though. You’re leggier too. I don’t know. You just look different…I mean look.” He held out his hand in front of Joey’s face to show him the greyish skin that covered it. “That’s different than you. I think he did something different with you…I just don’t know what.”

Joey made a concerned warble at this information, but then tilted his head away when Michael went to touch the top of it. He…Didn’t like that. Which he found strange since he’d never had an issue with his head touched. It just felt like an invasion of personal space.

“Sorry. Don’t like being touched?”

He turned his head to touch his shoulder with his nose in order to indicate that was fine. Michael nodded and lightly rubbed his shoulder.

“I…Think there’s a lot to figure out. I remember having to deal with new wants and…Quirks, I guess. I’m guessing you have it worse.” Then he snickered, “I mean, you reacted to me barking at you this morning. I’unno. Guess we’ll figure it out as we go. Anyway, let’s get going.”

Joey made a soft, uncertain noise before pushing himself up to his feet. He was happy that this time, he was only mildly unbalanced. With a pleased trill, he looked to Michael who gave him a grin. After the other took the lead, he followed and soon found himself walking along the bank of a creek. The mud and muck caused him to focus more on his walking to prevent him from losing his balance. He quietly wondered if Michael had purposely picked this path to force him to get used to different terrains.

They continued on for a ways until Joey caught a scent that prompted him to make the same alarm sound he’d made when he fell earlier. Unlike before, Michael didn’t laugh and instead moved closer to him. Before he could speak, the undergrowth around them rustled followed by a low clicking noise.

Joey stood up straight. This both caused the suitcases to slip off his back and also made him seem bigger. Finally, he growled. He knew he didn’t have a chance against the raptors that had found them, but if he could bluff…A raptor hissed from his right. Immediately, he focused on it and made a throaty, snarling hiss before he snapped his jaws.

A raptor with a heavy limp slinked out from the undergrowth and quietly hissed, defensively. Everything about the raptor screamed that she would be an easy kill. While he doubted she’d put up much of a fight even with his sup-par skills, Michael touched his chest to stop him.

“It’s a trap. They’re baiting you. She’s not as injured as she looks.”

The raptor took a step forward and made a soft sound of pain. Around them, he could scent the other raptors…Four others. Still, he chose to listen to Michael; he’d know more about the raptors than Joey would. As he focused on the raptor in front of him, he started noticing little details. Despite the ‘limp’, she wasn’t showing any other signs of pain; her breathing was normal and he couldn’t smell anything that told him she was distressed. Michael was right.

A soft rustling to his left caught his attention and he tensed. It didn’t seem his bluff was working. However, the attack didn’t come from his left, but his right. Still, the sudden flurry of activity clued him in enough for him to turn…And get a raptor leaping onto him. The weight of it knocked him over onto his back and instinctively he brought his legs up to protect his stomach, then tried to push the dinosaur off of him with his hands. Instead, he only succeeded in keeping the snapping jaws away from his neck. Somewhere off to his left, he heard Michael yell.

Joey snarled back at the snarling raptor on top of him; it was slightly smaller than him. Lighter in weight. He struck forward with his jaws for its neck, but only succeeded in snapping his jaws down on its head. Still, it’d work. With his legs under the raptor, he kicked out as hard as he could; his toe claws ripped right through the soft underbelly, bathing him in entrails and the raptor _screamed_. He twisted his head, forcing the raptor down next to him; it managed to escape from his jaws and took off into the undergrowth, still trailing its intestines behind it.

He rolled onto his stomach and got back up onto his feet. Michael was in the process of jabbing a branch at two raptors as he slowly backed towards a tree. So, Joey did the only thing he could think of: he charged. One raptor was smart enough to dart out of the way, but the other wasn’t. He grabbed its neck in his jaws and tried to drag it down; he didn’t have the strength to snap its neck like instinct told him to. Instead, he kicked out with a foot to try and gut the raptor…Without losing his balance. It jerked away from him in its struggles, but still managed to receive a deep gouge down its flank.

The second raptor pounced onto his side, knocking him down. He released the first raptor with a bellow when he felt the bite of claws in his side. That’s when Michael launched himself onto the raptor’s back; it screamed when his claws dug into its eyes. Suddenly finding itself blind, the raptor screamed again and took off into the undergrowth. Just like that, the remaining raptors fled; they’d taken heavy injuries and the fight wasn’t in their favor any longer. Around the small battle area, the jungle was silent save for the soft gurgles of the creek.

Joey slowly got up and made a soft noise of pain; while the claw marks weren’t deep enough to do dangerous amounts of damage, they still hurt. Luckily, they were only over his ribcage. Michael moved over to him and touched his flank.

“I can’t tell how much of that blood is yours…Christ. We need to get out of here before something bigger shows up. Think you can still carry the suitcases or should we leave ‘em?”

Joey considered this for a moment, but moved over to where the suitcases had fallen and nosed the makeshift straps. Once everything was in place, they continued on. Honestly, it kind of hurt to carry the suitcases since the straps put pressure on the claw marks, but he figured that they’d come too far to just dump everything. Because of his injuries, he moved slower due to not wanting to agitate them any more than walking already did.

Still, they reached the cave where he dumped the suitcases off and beelined it to the waterfall. There, he dunked himself in the water to wash off the gore. It made the injuries on his side sting, but it was probably better for them to get washed out, anyway. When he made it back to land, Michael gave him a worried look.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen when you change back.” He walked over to Joey and touched around the freshly opened injuries. “Kinda worried they’ll be worse.”

Joey made a nod of agreement before he headed into the cave with Michael trailing behind. Once he reached the bed, he hesitated before he started changing back. The injuries stung as he changed and he swore he felt blood dripping down his back when he was finally human. However, his back and side didn’t hurt. He hesitantly touched his side and felt confused at the scabs his fingers touched.

“It healed? But I thought I felt blood.” He looked towards Michael who nodded.

“They healed. You bled a bit while you changed, but...” He shrugged and threw a pair of shorts at Joey who pulled them on after a moment. Michael shoved the suitcases into the corner and flopped onto the bed with a sigh. “Way, way too exciting.”

“Yeah. That was…Yeah.” Joey sat down on a rock and rubbed his face.

“Dude. You were a fucking badass. You just straight up plowed into that one raptor. He didn’t see you coming at all!” Michael sat up with a terrifying grin. “I thought you were going to be a goner when that first one pounce you, though…But…Damn.”

Michael’s enthusiasm was contagious and Joey couldn’t help but grin himself. That had been pretty badass, hadn’t it? Especially considering he’d barely been able to walk earlier in the day. “Yeah, well. That one raptor you jumped on is kinda fucked.”

“I…Couldn’t just stand there. I can’t turn into a raptor or anything nearly as cool, but you barely know how to do anything.” Michael shrugged and looked away. “And…And it’s nice not being alone.”

“Raptors are pack animals, aren’t they…Like wolves? Maybe we could do something like that. Pack Kickass.”

Michael looked back up and laughed. “Yeah. I think we could. I guess I should teach you how to hunt, but I don’t know if I can teach you to hunt as a raptor.”

Joey shrugged, “You can still teach me other stuff. I’ve only been like this for what…A day? I’m pretty sure I can’t do any hunting as a raptor if I still fall over when I turn around.”

“I’unno. You did some impressive shit today…But you’re right. Tomorrow you can help me check traps. I’ll leave a little bit later to get dinner.” Michael settled back down on the bed with a sigh. “It’s too hot right now and I’m tired.”

Joey got up to flop down on the bed, himself. “Me too. Sure you don’t want me to help you tonight?”

“Nah. You’re kinda injured and you did a lot of shit today. I dunno if the raptors would have shown up regardless, but you saved my ass today.”

“So, you think they attacked because of me?” Joey rolled onto his side and got himself comfortable.

“I don’t know. Maybe? Coulda seen you as an intruder, or maybe they were just pissy because I injured one of them. Could just be ‘cause they were being bitchy. Don’t know, don’t care.” Michael stretched out before he rolled onto his stomach. “Maybe next time they’ll think twice before fucking with us.”

Joey just laughed, but didn’t reply. The activities of the day had caught up with him now that the adrenaline had fully left his system. While vaguely hungry, his exhaustion overruled this and with a little bit more of squirming to get comfortable, he dozed off.

The sensation of being vaguely overheated was what finally woke Joey up. He lazily stretched and made a quiet noise as he did so. Then, he became aware of someone flopped over his back, which likely was why he felt overheated. He glanced over his shoulder at Michael and rolled his eyes before he started trying to wiggle out from under the other. It took him a moment to flop onto the floor of the cave, but when he looked over at the entrance, he realized that they’d both slept right through the night and into morning.

His stomach grumbled angrily at this. Looking back to Michael, he reached over and shoved the other’s shoulder. He was rewarded with a sputtering hiss and a glare.

“What the hell? I told you, I’d get…” Michael trailed off when Joey simply pointed at the morning light that filtered into the cave. “…Oh. Guess it’s breakfast then.”

“Guess we were both pretty tired.” Joey commented and wandered to the waterfall to get a drink. Then he made a face and scratched at the scabs; they itched.

Michael yawned before he finally got up, “No kidding. Alright. Let’s go.”


	7. First Blood

The next couple of weeks saw Michael hauling Joey all around the northern part of the island in order to show him the best hunting spots for Compys and various small rodent creatures. Usually, Michael would catch fish in traps he’d build in the streams and use them to bait the Compys. The small therapods were overly curious, fearless, and eager to snap up offered food. Because of these habits, it also made them extremely easy to catch. Meaning the Compys were an easy to gain and steady food source.

Another way to gain meat was by following after the larger predators on the island and scavenging when they left a kill. It was a good way to get a lot of meat, but also a great deal more dangerous than Compy baiting. Consequently, Michael rarely did that unless they hadn’t been able to find anything to eat. He tended to be cautious, and it was understandable when Joey had seen a Rex for the first time. To say it had been terrifying had been an understatement.

While the Compys and scavenging were two easy ways to get food, Joey found himself steadily unsatisfied. He wanted to hunt. The Compys were curious to the point of detriment and a pack of them would wander over if food was set out for them; Michael had once scolded him for wanting to hunt them as a raptor since it was incredibly easy to just grab them as a human.

It honestly bored him. He wanted to run, to chase down his dinner. Joey had watched a raptor pack chase down a Galliminus one evening and was frustrated that he wasn’t able to do the same. He still remembered the sensation of killing the Compy the day after he’d changed and wanted to do it again. It felt _right_. But no. He couldn’t.

No, that wasn’t exactly true. He likely could, now. He’d practiced all the different gaits in his raptor form to the point of being able to zigzag between trees with ease, was able to spin around on a foot without falling over, and had often entertained himself by jumping from rock to rock around the waterfall in a bid to hone his balance. His skills were considerably better now and instances of being unbalanced were uncommon unless he was caught off guard. The reason he couldn’t hunt was entirely unrelated to his abilities. He wasn’t _allowed_.

It boiled down to Michael. Michael hadn’t wanted him to hunt and shot him down every time he brought it up. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure if it was because the other was concerned for his safety or was still a bit jealous of his abilities. It wasn’t any secret between them that Michael was unhappy that Joey could shapeshift and he couldn’t; they’d talked at length about what he might look like as a raptor during the hot and lazy afternoons.

Still, Joey went with Michael’s ‘rules’ since he felt that the other knew the island and its dangers better than he did. However, things were steadily leaning towards the tipping point on how much babying he could take. Sure, Michael was older by two years, but Joey wanted to be treated as an equal and he wasn’t entirely sure how to get that across.

It was an overall frustrating situation. He certainly saw Michael as a friend and had a healthy respect for the other boy’s knowledge…But he felt that by hunting for them both he could improve their situation considerably. Plus, by cutting down on the time spent hunting, it’d allow them to explore…Something Joey desperately wanted to do. Michael had told him about all the fantastic things on the island yet refused to let him see; they were often busy gathering food.

One morning, when it was time for their breakfast scavenging, he decided to push the issue…Carefully, at first. “I think I’m good enough with my raptor form to hunt. For both of us. I’m not wanting to go after an adult dinosaur…That’d be dumb. But maybe one of the Gallys. They’re basically helpless dumbasses and they’re not that big…Plus they don’t really fight back, so there’s not much chance I’d get hurt.”

Michael shook his head, “We should stick together. It’s safer that way. Besides, raptors don’t hunt by themselves.”

“You’ve said plenty of times that I’m not like the raptors on the island. I’m different. It’s always this is different about me or that’s different about me. I’m just tired of doing the same thing every day. I…I wanna hunt…And explore.” Joey couldn’t help but let the frustration he felt bleed through into his words. Already, he felt like he was bashing his head against a brick wall.

“We’re doing fine with food with how things are. Let’s go—”

“No. I want to hunt.” He stated firmly and stood up to glare at the other. Joey was sick of it and he wasn’t about to back down this time. “I’m tired of you babying me. I can run, I can jump, I’m not falling over. I want to learn to hunt. If I don’t get anything we can go with what you find.”

“I’m not babying you, but it’s better if we hunt together.” Michael refused to budge on the topic, but gave Joey a wary look when he stood up.

“I wouldn’t call baiting Compys ‘hunting’. We throw food at them and grab them when they run over like the brainless turds they are. Whoop, we’re totally fantastic hunters when we just sit there. It’s boring, Michael.” He stalked over to the other, feeling unusually irritated; normally he was pretty easy going, but Michael’s refusal to see his side of things was beyond frustrating.

“It works. There isn’t a reason to change it.” Despite his attempts to quell it, a low, defensive growl rumbled in Michael’s chest. The side of him that he tried to keep buried deep, the small hints of raptor he had clawed to be let out. He didn’t have much in the way of raptor instincts, not anywhere near what Joey likely had, but it was enough to give him an edge on the island.

It knew that Joey was trying to step out of line, to try and push for leadership; he worried that the other was turning himself over to the raptor already. It…Scared him to see Joey ‘hunt’. Rather than making a clean kill, he played with the food; tried to get it to run so he could chase it. Humans would call it sadistic, but he knew that was raptor behavior, not human behavior. He’d seen young raptors do the same thing when they were learning to hunt. It was a way for them to learn balance and learn to pounce onto their prey.

He needed to help Joey keep his humanity, because Michael had seen what happened to those who gave in: one day they turned into a raptor and never turned back. That wasn’t something he wanted for Joey, and the thought of that happening scared him. But maybe it wouldn’t. In all the other cases it’d already happened, and yet, here Joey was.

Unfortunately, the low warning growl Michael had made only fueled Joey’s frustration. He took it as the other being threatened by what he said. With a growl rumbling in his own chest, he moved towards the other. He really didn’t have any intention of trying to fight, it was a bluff, more than anything. Joey wasn’t dumb and knew quit well that the other boy was bigger and likely stronger than him. Besides that, Michael had those wicked claws and teeth. They weren’t as big or long as his own, but they could still do a healthy amount of damage.

However, before he could get another word out, Michael lashed out at him with a hand. Joey jerked back, but still felt the sharp pain of claws across his face. Immediately, he balled up a fist and slammed it into the side of the other’s head. This caused Michael to stumble to the side, and Joey took the chance to tackle him to the ground. The two of them struggled for a few moments, each trying to gain the upper hand, but it was ultimately Michael who came out on top by pinning Joey down. That didn’t mean that Joey didn’t stop growling, despite the blood that still dripped down his face. For a brief, fleeting moment, he had the image in his mind of him holding Michael down by the throat until the other finally submitted.

The thought baffled and confused him. Why would he do that? He hadn’t intended for the argument to escalate as it had and he sure as hell didn’t want to hurt Michael beyond the retaliation for attacking him. Despite his confusion, he didn’t stop glaring at the other who seemed to be struggling to calm himself down.

“You’re not going hunting. We’re sticking together.” Michael repeated, again, but softer this time. However, he made a startled yelp when Joey partially changed and shoved him off harshly.

Getting back up to his feet, Joey wiped some of the blood off the side of his face, then he glared at the other. “Fuck you.”

He turned and stalked out of the cave, ignoring how Michael said his name. Without much of a thought, he shifted and darted off into the undergrowth. Initially, he’d been embarrassed at the idea of running around without pants, but the hassle of always having to take them off before he changed had quickly caused him to get over that idea. The only time he bothered with clothes was in the cooler evenings when there were no plans of changing.

As he ran south and ducked around trees, he worked over what had ben said in his mind. It didn’t really make him angrier, just more frustrated. Still, the long run helped to vent the frustrations and when he finally slowed to a walk, he was panting for air from how hard he’d run. While he didn’t think it’d be wise to strike out on his own just yet, he did think that a break from Michael was needed. Since they’d met, they’d spent nearly every waking moment together. Hell, they basically slept together, too. With that in mind, it wasn’t a huge surprise that they had finally butted heads together.

The run had calmed him down quite a bit and he wasn’t so aggressive feeling as earlier, but he still had the matter of needing breakfast to deal with. He finally stopped walking and looked around. The grasslands weren’t too far off and there were plenty of dinosaurs there he could hunt. Unfortunately, he also knew there was a raptor pack that happened frequent there, as well. As long as he stayed to the northern part of the grasslands, he figured he’d be fine.

Slowly, he moved through the undergrowth towards the open grasslands. He was downwind, so the only thing he had to be worried about was being heard. As it was, he could already hear the low bellows of different herbivores. Michael had told him about the Brachiosaurus who lived further south, but he’d yet to see one…Mostly because the other hybrid had really refused to do any sort of exploring. As eager as he was to explore, he wasn’t keen on the idea of straying that far away from the cave and Michael just yet.

Distantly, he heard a musical note that was answered by a dinosaur closer to him; Parasaurolophus. They were way too big for him to take down unless he happened to find a juvenile. Not likely since those tended to be towards the middle of the herd with the cows while the bulls made up the outside of the herd. He reached the edge of the jungle and blinked rapidly in the bright sunlight before he focused on the grasslands in front of him.

The herd grazed quietly, a bit spread out, but they seemed unaware of him. Dotted between the Parasaurolophus were Gallimimus. The things reminded him of featherless ostriches, but were fast as fuck. While they were also somewhat bigger than him, they weren’t really capable of defending themselves. Their main defense just tended to be running the hell away and hoping that they were faster than whatever happened to be chasing them.

He tapped a toe claw as he thought over his plan of action. Chasing the Gally wasn’t a good idea. He was more of an endurance runner, not a sprinter. Despite the distance he’d run already, he already felt ready for more. That being said, he _was_ capable of sprinting, but only for short distances and it left him feeling more exhausted that if he ran all day at a much slower but steady pace.

Still, he didn’t know the limitations of his abilities just yet and he also didn’t know if he’d continue to improve with practice.  There was so much about him that was up in the air now and he felt there was so much more to learn. Likely, he’d have to learn everything on his own since there was only so much the other hybrid was going to be able to teach him. He did know one thing for certain, however, and that was that he wasn’t keen on the idea of dragging back to Michael unsuccessful after making such a big deal about going hunting.

He crouched down slightly and started walking into the tall grass, slowly. Now and then, he’d freeze when the breeze died down a bit; he needed to get as close as possible before he attacked. The Gallys relied on the Paras to see danger and so they didn’t pay as much attention…Which is why he slowly stalked towards at Gally who was on the outskirts of the herd. As he moved closer, his heart started pounding in his chest from the anticipation of the chase. Joey wasn’t going to kid himself, it was very unlikely that he’d be able to sneak up close enough for a kill attack. Still, the damned thing seemed to be absolutely oblivious of what was sneaking up on it.

He froze when he heard rustling in front of him as the Gally moved around. It made a purring chirp and wandered to his left a bit, then resumed eating. His heart pounded hard enough that he was certain it was about to explode and his toe claw rapidly tapped the soft soil under him. Every part of him felt poised to strike, but he had to remind himself: he hadn’t caught his meal yet. There was still plenty of things that could go wrong. A Rex could suddenly come barreling up and spook the entire herd or the wind could change and alert them to his presence.

Once he was certain that the dinosaur wasn’t paying attention anymore, he continued stalking forward; it had unwittingly moved closer to him. Which had narrowed the distance between them considerably. However, it had reached the point that he’d need to attack soon or risk spooking his meal. Further south, a dinosaur called. The caused the Gally to raise its head and turn around to look; it didn’t seem to be spooked, in his limited knowledge. That being said, he honestly wasn’t sure if that had been an alarm call or not, but he felt he wouldn’t have another chance.

Joey tensed and then lunged forward in an explosion of energy. The Gally and the rest of the herd spooked at his sudden appearance, but because of how close he had managed to get, his teeth sunk into the back of the dinosaur’s leg. He jerked his head to the side and ripped a massive chunk of muscle and flesh out of its leg; the Gally tumbled at the sudden loss of muscle. Joey swallowed down the meat in his mouth before he leapt onto his prey; it’d been struggling to get up but between his weight and the force of his jump, it was knocked back down.

He ignored how the dinosaur screamed as he slammed a foot down onto its head. After taking a final look around, he leaned down and bit down on its neck. It took him a few tries, but he finally heard a wet snap as the neck broke. To his right, the body of the Gally spasmed and it kicked out with a leg a few times before it finally went still. He stood up straight and watched the herd leave as he made a pleased purring snort at his success.

With the size of the dinosaur, Joey happily ate the choice chunks of meat. It was nice and he enjoyed it more than the boney Compys. They didn’t have much meat on them and often left him feeling vaguely hungry still. He decided to take his time eating since he couldn’t scent anything that could be considered dangerous.

When he was finally full he rolled the dinosaur over and, with some effort, pulled the uneaten leg off as proof of his success. He picked it up in his jaws and started back to the cave. Honestly, he didn’t know if Michael had stuck around or had left to go hunting, but he figured that the leg could be eaten at dinnertime.

It took him longer to get back to the cave on account of having to walk but by the time he did, not only had his temper fully cooled down, it was also late evening. Surprisingly, Michael was there, but it was hard to tell if he’d left to hunt or had stayed in the cave all day. He gave Joey a concerned look at the blood that covered him, but it was quickly clear to him that the blood belonged to something else entirely. After a moment longer, Joey dropped the leg at the feet of the other hybrid, then turned to dunk himself under the waterfall and get a drink.

When he returned, Michael had started eating. Good. Since he still had a full stomach, he laid down on the ground and made a content grunt as he got settled. All of the activity he’d done had made him sore, but he still felt good; he was learning and adapting. After a bit of time, Michael walked over.

“Can I?” He asked quietly and gestured at the side of Joey’s head where he’d lashed out this morning. When Joey finally nodded, he crouched down and carefully examined the scabs. Then Michael sighed and sat down next to him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. I’m just…I want to protect you, okay? I don’t know what Kurt plans to do, but I think you’re what he was trying to make.” Michael hesitated and looked away for a long few moments before he finally looked back to Joey. For a moment, he looked scared. “I know some stuff and…Gotta promise me you won’t be mad and leave again.”

Joey leaned forward slightly and made a soft, concerned noise at how Michael was acting. Then he settled back to his prior position and nodded.

“I…” Michael sighed and looked down at his clawed toes as he wiggled them. “…Kurt’s my dad. So…I stayed around in the lab for a while and saw him experiment on some people…Most of them died or he…Killed them. I didn’t really understand a lot of what he talked about, just that he was trying to make some type of raptor hybrid. A shapeshifter. Something like you. And I think if he finds out about what you can do, he’ll try to catch you and I don’t know what he’ll do to you. You’re my friend and I don’t want anything to happen so that’s why I’ve been trying to keep you here so he doesn’t see you and…”

Joey quietly watched Michael as the words suddenly tumbled out of him. It made sense, but he wished the other had said something. He huffed out a breath and then leaned forward to nudge the side of Michael’s head.

Michael looked up, but didn’t meet Joey’s eye. Instead, he looked past him at the wall. “I shoulda told you earlier but I was scared you’d run away. And I thought you’d be more like me but…You’re not. You’re completely different. We just have to be careful, okay?”

Joey huffed softly again, but nodded. While he wasn’t sure what to think about Michael being Kurt’s son, it said a lot about what lengths the doctor was willing to go in order to achieve his goals. Hadn’t he also said that he’d been kidnapped? While he wasn’t in much of a position to ask questions, Joey wasn’t entirely sure if he should ask about it. It seemed to be a bit of a touchy subject. Finally, he just shifted more onto his side and laid his head down.

“Gonna sleep like that tonight?” Michael asked and got up to go wash his hands after Joey nodded. “Why don’t you just sleep on the bed? I’ll just sleep on top of you like I always do.”

This caused Joey to snort loudly, but he pushed himself up to his feet. For whatever reason, he almost always woke up with Michael flopped out over his back in the mornings. He wasn’t entirely sure why, either. Maybe it had to do with how the mornings tended to be cold and it was a way to stay warm.

Briefly, he stretched before he moved over to the bed and laid down. A moment later, the other hybrid had flopped over his side, then wormed under his arm with the blanket. Michael squirmed around a bit more to wallow down and laid there for a bit before he spoke again, softly.

“I think it’s gonna rain tomorrow. It looks cloudy.”

Joey simply rumbled and closed his eyes. It’d been a pretty busy day and not only was he tired, but his muscles ached from all the running he’d done. Still, he’d proven that he was capable of hunting to Michael and so he considered that a win. Although, he wasn’t sure how much of the success was skill and how much had been dumb luck. It was something, wasn’t it? Just another step towards his continued survival on the island.

The cool mornings were nothing new, and he’d long since gotten used to waking up cold…But this was a lot colder than what he was used to. Joey lifted his head and softly snorted, then eyed the plume of mist that came from his nostrils. However, what drew his attention was the shivering mass huddled against his stomach. Slowly, he shifted himself so that he could curl up around Michael better.

While he couldn’t tell if it was raining or not, the colder temperature told him that it had at least stormed during the night. Michael made a quiet noise and squirmed to curl up against his chest where it was warmest. Once he stopped shivering, Joey dozed off again and didn’t wake up till later in the morning when the other started getting up.

He made a soft noise as he stretched and then allowed himself to change back into a human before he sat up. For a moment, he watched the other get a drink before he finally summoned up the courage to speak, “I wish you woulda told me everything earlier. I get why you didn’t but…”

Michael turned around and sighed, not really wanting a repeat of yesterday’s fight, “Just figured you’d be mad at me.”

“I was madder about you not letting me hunt than why you didn’t want me to hunt.” Joey looked down and picked at the blanket next to him. “I don’t like it when people keep things from me. No one ever cares what I think. It’s just...They’re always making the choices for me.”

It didn’t take a genius to tell that the bitterness in Joey’s voice was hinting at some unspoken issue. Michael wasn’t sure if it concerned him or something before the island. So, he chose to carefully approach it, “Like what?”

The question caught Joey a bit off guard and he looked away for a moment before he looked down at his hands. “My parents adopted me when I was really little. Mom couldn’t have kids, so they did the next best thing. She was in a car accident about three years ago and was in a coma…She never woke up. Dad started dating a few weeks after the funeral. Didn’t ask what I thought. I’d g into the kitchen with homework and he’d be talking to the babysitter so he could go on a date. Emma was a nice babysitter though. She let me stay up late and got me into sci-fi movies. Dad remarried a couple months after mom died. We…”

When Joey trailed off, Michael walked over to sit down across from him. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say, or if saying anything was even a good idea. Either way, he knew the topic was sensitive and from how Joey was acting, clearly important. So, he simply waited for the other to compose his thoughts and continue speaking.

“We got into a fight before the wedding. He wanted me to be the ringbearer and I didn’t want to. Was pretty mad that he was gonna marry Carla and hadn’t asked if I even liked her. It’s like he didn’t care mom was gone. He just…Moved on. I ended up being the stupid ringbearer ‘cause I was grounded afte I called him a dick. Only did it because it was the only way he said he’d unground me. Carla and I didn’t really get along…But I guess after mom died I stopped getting along with anyone. Just wanted my family back and for things to be the way they were before the accident.” Joey swiped at his eye with the palm of his hand.

“…I get it.” Michael hesitated and chose his words carefully. “It was pretty shitty of him not to talk to you about it.”

Joey nodded and made a quiet sniffle, “He kinda just went ‘This is Blah and we’re dating now’. Didn’t know he’d proposed to Carla till I saw her ring. I guess it doesn’t really matter now since they’re both dead. Just…Talk to me, okay? Lemme know what’s up and don’t keep me in the dark about stuff. When you told me why you didn’t want me hunting last night, it made sense.”

“Yeah. I just…I’ve been on my own for…A while now. Since 2000. I don’t wanna be alone again…And I was just…Scared you’d think I had something to do with what Kurt did to you.”

“Plane crashed in December of 2001.” Joey commented, quietly. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since then. His hair hadn’t grown that much, but the weather had changed from dry to rainy. “No...I’m not. I had kinda figured that I’d die a toothy, roary death by something. Whatever Kurt did was shitty, but I’m not convinced that I’m gonna die easily, now.”

Michael only nodded and then sighed. “At least we figured that out…I’ll try to do better with talking to you about stuff. I’m still not used to having someone around.”

The two fell quiet for a few minutes before Joey finally spoke up, “Guess breakfast would be a good idea. Is it still raining out?”

“I don’t know. It looked like it was slowing down earlier.” Michael got back up to his feet and walked to the entrance of the cave to check. Then he looked back to Joey and shook his head. “I guess you wanna go hunting again?”

“Yeah. It was fun. I dunno if I was just lucky, though.” He shrugged, “I probably need more practice. We can fall back on baiting Compys if I fail.”

After Michael made a noise of agreement, they started off with the older hybrid in the lead. He knew where most of the herds tended to be, and Joey was willing to follow him because of this. It’d take time to learn the ins and outs of where everything was…And with the knowledge that Michael’d been trying to protect him, he was a lot more willing to let the other be the leader.

Initially, he’d hated all the walking because of how much it hurt his bare feet but as time had gone on, he’d gotten used to it. While he didn’t have the degree of protection as Michael had, he wasn’t limping part way into their trek anymore. On the other hand, traveling by foot as a human took so much longer than it had as a raptor and Joey felt impatient. Still, he managed to restrain himself from asking ‘are we there yet?’…More than twice.

Despite his impatience, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed how the jungle was after the rain. It was quiet except for the soft sound of raindrops falling on the greenery. The air smelled clear and with a hint of fragrance from blooming flowers. It could have passed for an idyllic paradise if it weren’t for the ever present, lingering threat of carnivorous dinosaurs.

In due time, however, they reached a swampy area along a small river and Michael gestured for Joey to crouch down. Then, he spoke softly, “There’s some dinosaurs here that remind me of Parasaurolophus, but they have a different looking head crest. They usually have babies around with them, which is why we’re here. They’re timid, so if one of them is attacked, the rest will just run.”

“You want to help or is it just me?” Joey looked over at Michael who gestured for him to go on. It sorta made sense that the other wouldn’t really want to hunt. Compared to his raptor form, Michael was kinda delicate.

Slowly, he crept forward, shifting as he moved. The undergrowth was thick and helped hide him, but it also hindered his movements. This meant that he had to take extra care to ensure he didn’t make too much noise. Still, the youngster near the bank seemed to be a good target. It wasn’t too big, would be easy for him to take down, and it wasn’t in deep water. He froze, one foot lifted off the ground, when one of the adults honked. Another responded with a low bellow before the one that honked went back to grazing on the water grass. Joey flexed the toe claw of his raised foot before he began stalking forward again.

The juvenile that was his target raised its head and they locked eyes. It stared at him for a half a second before it honked in alarm and panicked the herd. He leapt forward and landed where the dinosaur had been seconds before. Snarling, he ran along the bank before he lunged towards his future meal again. This time, he didn’t attempt to land on his prey. Instead, he slammed his shoulder into its side causing it to stumble. He used this chance to snap down onto its neck and then twisted his head, forcing it down to its knees. As the death blow, he kicked out with a leg so that his toe claw could rip into its throat.

While the last of the herd stampeded away, he dragged the dying juvenile out of the water with some difficulty. It was the same size as him, but the damned thing was a lot heavier and the death throws really, really didn’t help. Once he had it onto the bank, he didn’t bother to wait for Michael and started eating.

“You don’t hunt like a raptor.” Michael perched on a rock and started digging in…With the occasional dirty look when Joey tugged on something and made the carcass jerk. “I wonder if you’re gonna get bigger. ‘Cause you’re built different from the other raptors. I know I keep repeating myself but…Fuck…I just wonder what he did to you.”

Joey only gave a shrug. It was done. There wasn’t anything either of them could really do at this point besides deal with whatever happened. As long as he didn’t spontaneously drop over dead, he didn’t care what happened. He just wanted to survive the island.


	8. Contact

Time on the island was relatively meaningless outside of the changes in the seasons. The sun rose in the east and set in the west. Rainy and hot days bled into dry and slightly cooler temperatures. It was a constant, and as time went on, Joey fell into a routine. Unlike Michael, he was much more prone to sleeping in rather than getting up with the sun. In time, the older hybrid adopted a similar sleep schedule.

With Joey being able to hunt ample food, he no longer needed to spend hours each day scavenging. Eventually, they began to explore the island and Joey became adept at navigating the dangers posed by the different dinosaur species. He soon realized the patterns in migrations and utilized this in his hunting. Unlike the other predators on the island, he didn’t stick to a singular territory; he hunted what he damn well pleased. Michael finally gave in, eventually, and began helping him hunt. He didn’t do any killing, but instead, helped spot and spook the dinosaurs to Joey’s location. Between the two of them, it was rare that they didn’t make a kill.

While the island remained almost timeless, that didn’t remain true for Joey and Michael. Michael was taller, lankier now and was similar to the island raptors. He was also able to better keep up with Joey’s raptor form…For a short while, anyway. He was a sprinter and much more agile than Joey. This meant he often played dirty when they played hunting games with each other; Joey couldn’t climb trees as easily as he could.

Joey had grown a bit, himself. He was taller and lanker, too, but not nearly as much as Michael. If anything, the more pronounced indications of aging had been his raptor form. The light brown mottles had started to fade a bit while the green striping had slowly become more evident, but were still a bit faint.  He was still very lanky as a raptor, but had started showing signs of being heavier bodied than the island raptors. Overall, his proportions were still a bit odd, which hinted at further growth.

Despite the dangers the island posed, Joey had come to enjoy life as…Whatever he was now. Especially when he got to hunt.

The rain came down as a slow drizzle and made the sound around him dulled. Joey patiently waited for the herd to spook. He was crouched in the grass, with the top of his head barely visible in the grass. Michael was somewhere upwind of the herd and he caught hints of the other hybrid’s scent on the breeze. The herbivores rarely considered the older hybrid a threat and almost never spooked when he was around; Joey was the one that freaked them ot. He sighed softly and tapped his toe claw impatiently before he tilted his head forward to softly snort the water out of his nostrils.

Then he heard it: a faint bark. The herd in front of him made quiet concerned noises and he tensed up. Another dinosaur made a bellow of alarm, which prompted the herd to spook. Still, he waited until he saw a young Para struggling to keep up with the herd. Joey charged forward and rather than pouncing onto it, he slammed his shoulder into its hindquarters. Unbalanced, it stumbled forward. He spun around on a foot and this time, he pounced onto the Para, knocking it completely to the ground. With little hesitation, he sunk his teeth into its throat and jerked his head back. The dinosaurs’ bellows of fear suddenly ceased with the removal of its windpipe.

Uninterested in what was in his mouth, he spat it out to the side of him and looked towards where Michael was likely still at before calling to him. It was a variation of the ‘I see you’ bark; throaty and drawn out for a handful of seconds. As usual, instead of waiting for the other to arrive, he simply started eating. He had his head buried in the gut of the dinosaur as he rooted around for choice organs when something smacked the tip of his tail.

He pulled his head out of the belly with an inquisitive chirp, ignoring the gore and blood that covered his head. Michael circled around to his right and gave him a bland look.

“That’s disgusting…Just don’t bust open the intestines like you did last time.” Michael perched on the Para’s flank and started ripping into the shoulder.

Joey just snorted loudly at the other, spraying him with droplets of blood and snot. While Michael made an undignified squawk of protest, the raptor shoved his head back into the belly of the Para to continue rooting around. His shoulder was shoved and he only made a throaty laugh at the other hybrid’s annoyance. Despite the somewhat bumpy start to their friendship, they’d overcome a lot of the issues they’d initially had. There were still the occasional spats, mostly started by Joey in an attempt to push the limits of what he was allowed.

A moment later, his shoulder was shoved again, followed by a fist being slammed into it. Annoyed, he pulled his head out of the dinosaur’s belly to snap at Michael, but froze when he heard a sound in the distance that was steadily getting closer. He stood up straight and tilted his head to listen. The sound was familiar, but one he hadn’t heard in some time and because of this, it took him a moment to place the sound. It was a helicopter.

Immediately, Joey grabbed Michael’s arm and dragged him under him, then pushed him down into the grass to hide him from sight. When the other protested, he made a soft alarm call to quiet him. Communication had been the biggest obstacle they’d faced, but time had allowed them to work out what each sound meant. Michael went silent, he understood Joey’s reasoning once the helicopter came into view. A lone therapod eating a meal in an open grassland wouldn’t raise eyebrows…But that same therapod with what appeared to be a human would raise every single eyebrow on the helicopter.

Joey watched the helicopter as it passed over the grassland on its way south. When he finally couldn’t hear it anymore, he leaned down to nudge at Michael. The hybrid climbed out from under him and stood up to look in the direction the helicopter had gone.

“What the hell.” He muttered before using the back of his wrist to clean some blood off his mouth. Then, he looked to Joey, “Whatcha think?”

Joey turned towards where the helicopter had gone and tossed his head towards the jungle in front of them.

“You’re wanting to check it out?” Michael already figured the answer was ‘yes’ due to Joey’s nearly insatiable curiosity about things, but wanted to confirm beforehand. Unsurprisingly, the hybrid next to him nodded. He sighed and nodded, himself. “Alright. Should get cleaned up first so we don’t drag in every bug around.”

After he snagged a final bite of food, Joey turned and followed after Michael until they reached one of the many creeks that zig zagged over the island. There, they both rinsed the blood off…With Joey requiring a bit of help from Michael. Once they were cleaned up, they continued their trek south. It was really hard to tell where the helicopter had gone or if it had even stayed.

They had nearly reached the southern coast of the island when they heard it: gunfire. Michael ducked behind a tree while Joey crouched down into the undergrowth before he shifted back human. From the same direction was more gunfire followed by the screech of a raptor, but it wasn’t a screech of attack. Instead, it was one of pain.

“I wanna know what they’re doing.” Joey whispered to Michael who violently shook his head.

“It’s too dangerous. We should go back to the cave.”

“Dangerous for you, maybe. I look human.” Joey replied as he crept to where the other was standing and peered around the tree. “Gimmie your pants.”

“What? Why?”

“Cause it’d look weird if I showed up without them, you dumbass.” While he still peered around the tree, he made a slight ‘gimmie’ motion at Michael with his hand.

“You’re seriously not gonna just walk up to them and go ‘hi, here I am’, are you?” Michael stared at Joey, incredulously.

“…That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Michael was silent for a long moment before he reached out to smack Joey upside the head, ignoring the quiet sound of protest the other made. “Oh. My. God. You are fucking insane. Did you hit your goddamned head yesterday?”

“I’m serious! Besides. You’re always worrying about Kurt doing stuff, even though he left two seasons ago. I wanna know if they’re here for us or not. If they’re not, we go home and lay low until they leave…If they are…” Joey trailed off, slightly hesitant to say what he was thinking.

“And if they are?” Michael prompted. He tried to keep Joey steered on a more humanly moral path than what the other teen wanted to veer onto, and killing people was definitely not he path he wanted the other to take if they could help it. At times, Joey’s startling lack of morals seriously scared him. The guy was smart, inventive, and could be absolutely ruthless. It didn’t bode well considering how young he was, still.

“…We kill them.” He sighed at Michael’s expression. “Look. If…If they’re after us. If they _know_ about us, then it means they’re hooked up with Kurt, right? You know what the guy’s after and what he’ll do to get it. If they want us, then it’s bad news for us.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Joey had a very strong argument. The problem was, Michael didn’t exactly like the notion of the other running off on what could be a killing spree. Then again, if the other hybrid truly wanted to do that, there was very little he could do to stop him. While Michael was technically the ‘leader’ of the pack, he knew his control was slowly slipping. Sure, Joey could be pretty easy going, but he also had a forceful and domineering personality at times. There had been challenges for leadership in the past, and so far, he’d managed to win all of them…But Michael knew that sooner or later, he was going to lose. It was something inevitable in a ‘pack’ comprised of what amounted to two juvenile male raptors.

Michael toyed with the waistband of his pants for a moment before he finally sighed and started pulling them off. “Alright…But promise you’ll leave them alone if they’re not after us, okay?”

Joey took the pants and pulled them on; they were a little bit looser on him than Michael thanks to their size different. “I promise. I’m not wanting to get shot, but if they’re after us…”

“I know. I’ll be around, just staying out of sight.” He gave Joey a slight nod before he started climbing up the tree they were hiding behind.

Rather than immediately heading towards where he had heard the gunfire, Joey crouched down and smeared damp dirt on his arms, face, and body. He was a tad bit too clean looking to be someone who’d been lost in the jungle. Once he was satisfied with how grunged up he looked, he started towards where he hoped the people were at. Really, the only major concern he has was his eyes, but with his hair being midback length now…Maybe that’d help hide them.

By the time he heard quiet conversation ahead of him, the dirt he’d smudged himself up with had dried. Well, it was now or never. Sighing softly, he spoke and added a bit of a waver to his voice, as if he was scared. “Hello?”

The conversation came to quick halt.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah. Sounded like a damn kid.”

Joey hesitated before he stumbled into the clearing where he was greeted by five armed and armored men. All of them had various expressions of surprise on their face. He tucked his left arm close to his side, as if it was injured. The man closest to him on his left let his rifle drop down to his side and slowly moved over.

“Jesus Christ. What are you doing here?” He crouched down in front of Joey, “What’s your name, kid?”

“My parent’s boat. We were sight seeing and…” Joey gave a fake sniffle and swiped at his eye as if he was getting teary; it gave him a brief moment to think up a different name to give the man. “Aaron.”

“Hey. Hey. It’s alright. I’m Robby. That’s Colin, Travis, Wallace, and Jerimiah.” As Robby spoke, he indicated each man who either gave a nod of greeting or a slight wave. “How long have you been here?”

Joey just mutely shook his head. Despite the act, he quietly examined the five men. They all wore armored vests and were armed with some type of rifle along with what looked like a handgun at their hip. On top of that, they all had ear pieces. It reminded him of what he had seen in movies.

“It’s May 12th, 2004. You thirsty?” Robby held up a canteen and then handed it over when Joey nodded.

“I…I think it’s been a month?” He stammered out before he turned his attention to opening the canteen while still pretending his arm was injured.

“Your arm hurt, Aaron?” Robby asked as he gently touched Joey’s arm.

Joey flinched away, as if the limb was tender, and then nodded. “Slipped and fell on it yesterday.”

Travis sighed, “We should head back to base camp. I’m not gonna to haul this kid all over the jungle while we’re dealin’ with hostiles. One of the medics can look him over when we get there.”

“Yeah. I agree.” Robby glanced to Travis and nodded before he looked back to Joey. “Up for some walking, kid?”

“Think so.” He handed the canteen back before he was shooed to the middle of the group to walk beside Robby. “Y’guys here to rescue me?”

“We’re actually here to catch certain dinosaurs. Didn’t expect to run into survivors like you.” Colin commented. “Right now, we’re just getting an idea of where all the herds are…And we’re looking for a couple in particular.”

“Seen a lot of dinosaurs. Nearly got ate a few times.” Joey glanced behind him at Jerimiah who was informing base camp of ‘finding a survivor’. Godammit. That wasn’t good. He hadn’t expected them to have radios.

“Damn, you’re lucky then. Think you could look at some pictures and tell me if you’ve seen them?” Colin glanced over his shoulder at Joey who nodded. After digging in a pocket, he passed some folded up pictured to the boy behind him.

Joey took the pictures and unfolded them. They weren’t the greatest, but they were good enough to tell what the dinosaurs were; each picture also had a name in the lower right-hand corner. One was some type of therapod with a sail on its back; Spinosaurus. Another was a heavily armored dinosaur with a clubbed tail; Ankylosaurus. One by one, he sorted through the pictures; all of the dinosaurs he’d seen at one point or another. He was starting to think that these guys were alright to let go…Until he reached the final picture.

It was a raptor, of some type who was trotting through the jungle along a stream. A raptor that was leggy and a bit lanky; dark brown in color with lighter brown mottles. The corner of the picture didn’t have a species name; it simply had ‘Unknown raptor: RH-34’.

That was a picture of _him_.

They were here to catch him. He let out a quiet, shaky breath that was all too real. Yeah. These guys had to go. He quietly folded up the pictures and handed them back. “Seen a couple of the plant eaters. The ones that tried to eat me weren’t in here. They kinda looked like that last one, but different.”

“The velociraptors?”

“I guess so. Was too busy trying to hide.” He needed to get away from them…Somehow. Joey glanced up in hopes of spotting Michael somewhere, but the other hybrid was quite skilled at hiding himself. Slowly, he started edging towards the back of the group in hopes of slipping away that way. Unfortunately, it was quickly noticed and he simply made the excuse of his feet hurting. This just prompted the group to start walking a little bit slower. However, Michael seemed to pick up on Joey’s excuse and off to their right was a sharp bark.

The five soldiers bunched up with Joey in the middle, much to his frustration. Michael was trying his damnedest to make it sound like there were multiple raptors, but it just wasn’t giving Joey the opening he needed; the guys were clearly familiar with raptor tactics…But did he really need an opening? It’d be a waste of time and effort to run off, change into a raptor, then run back, and kill them…Especially when he had five backs to him and a knife within easy reach. He looked towards where the barking was coming from and hoped Michael could see him when he nodded.

He reached down and carefully pulled the knife out of the sheath on Colin’s leg. The man only noticed right before Joey slammed it into his side. Colin had been too focused on the potential of an attack coming from his front, not the idea of an attack from the scared boy behind him. He screamed and when Wallace started turning towards him, Joey slammed the knife into his side as well. By this point, the other three had taken notice and were turning to level their rifles at him. Joey didn’t hesitate to tackle Robby as he shifted into a raptor; someone screamed ‘what the fuck’. In a way, he felt bad for what he was doing. The guys had been pretty nice to him, but they were a danger to him; they wanted to capture him.

Jerimiah and Travis both took aim at Joey…Only for Michael to drop down onto Travis from above. This left Jerimiah to take a shot, one that went off target when he was tackled by the older hybrid. Still, Joey screeched at sudden pain in his leg and nearly went down from the bullet’s impact. He managed to recover in time to prevent himself from completely losing his balance, something that might have proven fatal.

With a soft growl, he limped over to Colin, each step agonizing, before he leaned down to break the man’s neck with his jaws. Still growling, Joey looked around and stared at Wallace who was holding his side as he slowly dragged himself towards Robby’s rifle. He stalked over to the man and leaned down to flip him over onto his back. Wallace stared up at him with an expression of pure terror right before Joey snapped his neck.

A sudden touch to the flank of his injured leg caused him to snarl and snap at Michael reflexively. When the other held up his hands and took a step back, Joey made a quiet warble and lowered his head as apology.

“We need to get out of here.”

Joey gave a nod before he shifted back human and made a quiet noise of pain; something was wrong. The leg didn’t heal. “Leg’s fucked. Think the bullet broke it but it doesn’t feel right. Don’t know if I can make it back to the cave.”

Michael moved to help Joey but paused when he was directed to grab one of the knives. Only then did Joey allow himself to be helped. While the outside injury was healed, every step felt like he was being stabbed in the thigh. He had no idea what was wrong. Injuries weren’t anything new, but they always healed properly when he changed…Yet here he was: leaning against Michael as he walked because his leg couldn’t support his weight.

Each step saw him digging his fingers into Michael’s side, and while he was sure it hurt the other he didn’t hear a single complaint. Finally, he pulled away from the elder hybrid and sagged down to the ground with a soft whine. “I don’t think I can walk back to the cave. It hurts too much.”

“We gotta. They’re after you, right?” Michael asked, and when Joey confirmed, he crouched down. “We have to put as much distance between us and them as we can. Come on. You can do this.”

Joey allowed himself to be pulled back up to his feet and with a groan started walking again. He tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other, but it was hard to focus on that when every other step caused him agony. Finally, he simply let go of Michael and tried to go back down again. This time, Michael growled and dragged him up onto his back so that he could piggyback ride.

The sudden jostling of his leg caused Joey to scream and dig his fingers into Michael’s shoulders. “God. Fuck. I think it _is_ broken.”

Honestly, the piggyback ride wasn’t much better than walking. Each step the other took jostled his leg and made him whimper. He had no idea how they were even going to fix this. Didn’t bones take several months to heal? This completely ignored the possibility of it being a complex break. If it was broken, that mean the bullet had hit it, didn’t it? Joey sucked in a shaky breath. But why hadn’t it healed?

The trip back to the cave took considerably longer than it should have and it was dusk when Michael finally had Joey settled on the bed. With a whimper, he laid on his side and tried to find a position that helped relieve some of the pain he felt. Next to the bed, Michael paced and tugged at his hair.

“You saw the injury, right?” Joey’s voice was tight with pain.

“Yeah. I did.”

“Was there an exit wound?” He looked up at Michael and was barely able to make out the other’s features in the darkness of the cave.

“What?”

“If there wasn’t an exit wound…Then the bullet might still be in there. If it is…” Joey trailed off to try and shove the old clothes that lined the bed under his leg.

Michael stopped pacing and looked at Joey, “…You think the bullet stopped your leg from healing.”

“…Yeah. Which means tomorrow I get my leg carved open.”

“What? No. You don’t have any proof that it’s still in there. It could have fallen out—” Michael was abruptly cut off by Joey suddenly making an inhuman _bellow_ of pain as he groped his injured leg.

He wasn’t sure how to even describe the pain he felt as he dug his fingers into the muscle of his leg, beyond it being the most painful thing he’d ever felt. The first squeeze had caused him to tense up, which likely made the pain even worse. His breath came out in short, rapid whimpers as he continued probing the muscle, trying to find what was wrong with the bone. It was definitely broke; shattered more like. He could feel the bone separate and move and shards which were likely bone and…A small hard knot.

“I-it’s still in there.” Joey buried his face in his arms and tried to keep himself from puking. He didn’t look forward to the idea of his leg being cut open, but something had to be done. At least if the shards of bone and the bullet were taken out it might have a better chance of healing.

“I..Oh God. I don’t know if I can do that.” Michael actually sounded ill for once and he scrubbed his hands over his face. Their life had been somewhat story book, in a way. One of the stories where the teen boys were castaways on an island, free to do whatever they wanted…But it had gone from being a lighthearted storybook tale to something painful, scary, and with a sudden, dark turn. “I…Joey, are you _sure_?”

“I felt it. Look…If you can’t, I’ll have to. I don’t think it’ll heal, otherwise, or if it does I don’t think I’ll be able to walk properly, let alone run.”

Michael just nodded and moved to the waterfall in order to wash his face. “You’re not going to do it tonight, are you?”

“Fuck no! I want good lighting.” Joey shifted himself again and before finally giving up on the idea of getting himself comfortable. A few moments later, Michael carefully laid down behind him and squeezed his shoulder.

The night saw Joey slipping in and out of sleep. It seemed that as soon as he fell asleep he was woken up by his leg aching. So, when dawn finally arrived, he was more than ready to start carving on his leg. Unfortunately, he still had to wait for Michael to wake up and help him outside.

Michael stared at the knife that sat next to Joey’s leg and shook his head. “I…Can’t. I’m sorry. Do…I…”

“Go hunting. I’ll deal with it while you’re gone.” He wasn’t entirely sure why Michael was so squeamish about the whole thing…But he wasn’t really interested in wasting anymore time that he already had. Once the other had left, he picked up the knife and stared at his leg, mentally visualizing where the break was. Christ, this was going to suck.

It was one thing to be injured by something else, but it was entirely another to do it to oneself. He stared at his leg and tried to gather the courage. Really, it shouldn’t take him longer than a few minutes, right? Then he’d be good to go….Right?

Finally, he slammed the knife down into his upper thigh and felt it hit the bone before he jerked it forward towards his knee with a scream that was more raptor than human. He dropped the knife on the rock next to him and tried to quell the bile that rose in his throat at the sight of the blood that started pouring out of the injury. But he wasn’t finished yet. He dug his fingers into the injury and made a growling scream through clenched teeth as he started feeling around. One by one, he pulled the shards of bone out of his leg with shaking hands.

But he hadn’t found the bullet yet.

Finally, he used one hand to spread open the injury and used the fingers of his other to further probe. The nail of his middle finger scraped against something hard that wasn’t bone. God. It was _in_ the bone, wasn’t it? He needed to finish this up; his head was starting to feel fuzzy. With a bit more fumbling, he was finally able to get a good grip on the bullet and yank it out, prompting yet another scream of pain.

Slowly, he stood onto his good leg, his vision briefly blacking out. Raptor. He needed to be raptor. Vaguely, he felt himself change somewhat and the pain in his leg lessened. Then, he stumbled back into the cave where he flopped down onto the bed. Blearily, he stared at the wall as it slowly grew fuzzier. Yeah. Sleep sounded fan-fucking-tastic.

It was an upset sounding Michael that woke him up and he stared up at the other hybrid for a moment before he spoke, his words somewhat slurred. “I’m up…I’m up.”

“Christ, Joey. How much blood did you lose? Your leg’s barely healed.”

“…I’unno. A lot? Leg feels better though. Lemme sleep.” He honestly felt cold and tried to burrow under the blanket that was on top of him.

Michal dragged him up into a sitting position and let him lean against him before shoving some meat against his mouth. “Eat something, first, you fucker.”

It took some coaxing, but Joey finally downed some food before he snuggled against Michael and dozed off. This was something that ended up being repeated for the next few days. All he really did was sleep and only woke up long enough for a drink or for food. When he started feeling good enough to move around, he was pleased to find the bone of his leg had healed…Even if the rest of the injury hadn’t healed as much.

Michael wasn’t as pleased as Joey was, however. “You could have died from blood loss.”

“Nah. I’m too stubborn. I’ve survived the island for over three years, apparently. I’m not gonna roll over and give up ‘cause some asshole shot me.”

Michael rolled his eyes at the bravado, especially since he had to basically drag Joey back to the cave. Still, he’d let the other have the claim. He was just happy that Joey had mostly healed. However, the news of how much time had passed caught his attention. As he stepped out from under the waterfall, he looked over to Joey. “…It’s been that long? Did they give you a date?”

“May 2004. I don’t remember the exact day. Plane went down in December 2001.” Joey laughed and gave a slight grin. “Means I had a birthday a few months ago and I’m 14 now.”

“I’m nearly 16, then.”

“Why the fuck don’t you have a mustache then?” Joey threw a small pebble at Michael’s back before he flopped out on the rock he’d been sitting on and enjoyed the warmth it still radiated.

“My face kinda does look like a raptor’s ass. Probably all the weird raptor bullshit.” After climbing onto a rock and perching on it, he shook his head to get the last of the water out of his hair. Thanks to Joey’s suggestion of getting the knife, they’d both been able to get much needed haircuts. Sorta. They’d only managed to get it shoulder length, but Joey had remarked that it was better than hair to their asses.

“…They had a picture of me, Michael. Not like this,” He vaguely gestured at himself. “The raptor me. They were sent to capture certain dinosaurs and had pictures of them with the species names…Including me…Except instead of a name mine just had ‘RH-34’.”

Michael shot him a concerned look, “They’re going to come back again.”

“…Yeah. But this time? We know they’re coming and we’ll be ready.”


	9. Instinctual Needs

It was hard to tell if the soldiers ended up coming back or not. Neither Joey or Michael saw signs of them, but sometimes they’d find mysteriously dead dinosaurs. Even then, it was impossible to tell just how the dinosaurs died since it was usually after they’d been half eaten or had heavily decayed. Normally, finding dead dinosaurs wasn’t unusual…But these had been predators, not prey. Still, without much proof, they simply had suspicions and theories to go off of.

So, the two of them prepared for what might happen: they scavenged and worked on building traps. It had been Joey’s idea to tie jagged bones to short tree limbs using dinosaur leg tendons. He reasoned that if the tendons were tied into place and then allowed to dry, they’d shrink into place. The only problem was that they had to be kept dry until they were ready for use. From there, vines could be used to attach it to green tree limbs and the vine tensioned by essentially using nearby trees as a crude pulley system. As the final step, the vine could be ran as a trip line across paths. Anyone or anything that tripped the line would get a nasty surprise.

It was surprisingly effective, even if the trap was single use. Still, Joey had pointed out that if there was a group of soldiers, the sheer surprise of the trap might catch them off guard long enough for an attack. Michael wasn’t too terribly keen on the whole idea, but he also knew Joey was right. Something was going on and neither of them knew what it was.

Still, time dragged on and the concern of being hunted began to fade. The hot, rainy, and muggy season slowly tapered to the cooler, drier months. With the change in seasons, came a change in how Joey felt. He was crankier and a lot more standoffish. Had it been a while back, he would have said it was due to Michael’s teasing over his voice cracking…But that was long since over. So, he put it of as a result of the hot weather. Honestly, when it still felt like it was boiling hours after dark? That was enough to make most people miserable.

Yet…That didn’t seem to explain all of it. Even in the pre-dawn hours when the temperatures were at their coolest, the feeling remained. Initially, he had thought about asking Michael, but the other teen didn’t have nearly the amount of instincts that Joey did. So, he doubted that he’d be able to get an answer. It was something he discovered early on: with many of the little quirks that popped up, Michael was usually clueless.

This meant that Joey tried to handle things on his own. Often times, he left in the pre-dawn hours to simply roam. It seemed to help burn off some of the near constant irritation he felt, but then he found himself rubbing the underside of his jaw against trees or rocks. The jungle around the waterfall was _his_ , and he wanted to make sure any other predator that might wander through knew this. But the notion struck his as strange. Why was he trying to establish a territory? Michael and he had no issues with traveling to find food.

It confused and worried him. Michael had told him about the other hybrids…The ones who’d turned into raptors and never snapped out of it. Neither of them thought the same would happen to Joey with how much time had passed, but at the same time…So much was unknown. Still, the feeling wasn’t getting any better, but it wasn’t getting any worse. He also wasn’t sure if Michael had picked up it or not. The other hybrid had remarked a few times about his moodiness, but hadn’t said much else about it.

Maybe it’d be worth bringing up to Michael? Joey huffed to himself before sniffing of a scent mark he’d left on a tree a few days prior before he rubbed his jaw against it to freshen it back up. As he continued to the next one, he caught a scent. A raptor. It was fresh, too. With a low growl, he shifted his path to stalk after the unknown raptor. Quite quickly, he found the lone raptor eating a small meal; it was a young lone male, likely just recently kicked out of a pack.

He opened his mouth and hissed in a pure threat display. The raptor snapped his jaws in warning, but Joey wasn’t about to be dissuaded. The raptor was trespassing, and he intended to remedy that issue. A growl rumbled in his throat as he stalked closer, then he lunged forward. Most of his movements were bluffs, for now. Fighting with another predator almost always resulted in injuries, and he wanted to avoid that if at all possible.

Maybe.

The raptor jerked to the side, but Joey’s teeth still grazed skin enough for him to taste blood. Alright, so maybe he was feeling a bit aggressive and actually wanted a fight. Although, with how the young male was slowly backing away, it didn’t look like he’d be getting that fight. He snapped his jaws and stepped over the small, half eaten kill; the raptor side eyed him before glancing to the side. Then the male suddenly spun around and bolted. However, that wasn’t enough for Joey. He snarled and chased after the other male, snapping at his tail as they both ran.

He only stopped the chase when the raptor was out of his territory and had darted off into the undergrowth. As a final measure, he stood up tall and made a drawn out, warbling bark. When nothing replied, he turned and started trotting back towards the cave. There, he found Michael flopped out on a rock in the shade in an attempt to stay cool.

Joey shifted human and didn’t hesitate to bail into the pool of water. When he surfaced, he climbed out to perch near Michael who quietly grumbled about the heat before he looked over.

“I thought I heard you yelling earlier. What was that about?”

Joey wrung his hair out and winced when his fingers caught on a tangle. “Found a male raptor on the territory and I chased him out.”

“Territory? When the hell did you start doing that?” Michael tilted his head back to look at the other teen.

“…Uh…” He’d never actually told Michael what he’d been doing and wasn’t entirely sure how to answer the question. So, he just decided to be vague about it. “A while now?”

“Why? You’ve never had an interest before.” Michael slowly rolled over onto his stomach so his head wasn’t at such an odd angle.

Joey hesitated. He wasn’t entirely sure if he should bring it up or not. On one hand, they were pretty open about things since communication was so crucial; if one of them felt off, it could throw a hunt. But on the other, he didn’t know if Michael would really understand. Finally, he sighed, “It…Feels right…I guess. Like something I should do, y’know? Kinda similar to how I was with hunting.”

“And you chased off a raptor?”

He nodded. “Didn’t have a pack with him. He was a loner, I think…One of the ones recently kicked out.”

Michael yawned and ran his hand down the side of his face. The random instincts that popped up with Joey just tended to be something he had to roll with anymore. If the other tried to ignore them, he just tended to get pissy and be an overall pain in the ass to be around. “I…Think it’s just you growing up. I guess maybe your raptor side is growing up with you. I mean…I have noticed you smelling different. Stronger, I think? I’ve been around adult raptors before and it’s sorta like that.”

It made sense to him, but was also kind of concerning. “I’m just wondering how much of the raptor stuff I’m gonna get. You barely got anything, or the stuff you did get is pretty easy to ignore. I keep getting new stuff.”

After propping himself up on his elbows, Michael looked down at his claws for a moment. “I…Honestly think you’re going to get everything. You’re something else entirely, Joey. Something new. You’re not human, but you’re not a raptor. You’re both. And…” He sighed and looked up at the other. “As much as I hate to admit it, you scare me sometimes. Because I see so much raptor in you and…You like it. It’s like you’ve just thrown in the towel with your humanity and embraced the raptor.”

He would have been a liar if he tried to claim that didn’t sting a bit. Making Michael scared of him was the furthest thing he wanted, but at the same time, he couldn’t ignore what he was. While he had no idea what he might be, he just knew that following his instincts helped him figure things out. He shifted to sit down on the rock he was on, “Maybe because being a human has been so shit for me. I’m happy, Michael. Yeah, life’s rough out here, but I don’t have to worry about bullshit from family. I can do what I want.” Joey scoffed and looked away, “You’ve always said, all this time, about how different I am. Now you’re back pedaling about it.”

“No, I’m not Joey. I’m just worried about what you’re turning into. I’ve always been worried.”

“Well, if I’m so damn scary, maybe I should just leave. I’m pretty sure that I can survive on my own.” He couldn’t help but glare a bit. Why hadn’t Michael ever brought this up before? It was the first Joey had heard about it, but the other made it sound like it had been a longstanding issue.

Michael sat up, a bit wide eyed. “No. Don’t go. Look. I-it’s…You have a temper and you enjoy hunting a lot more than I do. I’m just…” He finally sighed. “I’m worried you’ll suddenly snap and turn on me, okay? That’s why you being different scares me. I’m scared the raptor you won’t recognize me one day and you’ll attack me.”

That…Hurt a lot…Much, much more than the statement Michael had made about being afraid of him. Joey looked down and was silent for several minutes as he tried to both process what had been said, as well as come up with a good reply. Finally, he looked back up. “I’m not gonna lie and I say I don’t find hunting fun, because I do. I don’t want to hurt you…I’ve never wanted to hurt you. I mean…Yeah. We’ve argued and we fought, but you’re basically my best friend. If I did something to kill you, I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself.”

This caused Michael to visibly relax and he made a soft noise of relief. “That’s good to hear. I didn’t really want to bring it up because I wasn’t sure if I should or even how to word it.”

Joey simply nodded. He really did consider Michael his best friend; he felt quite close to the other teen. While he couldn’t say he was physically attracted to the other since he was honestly a nightmarish mess…He couldn’t deny that he felt some sort of emotion beyond ‘just friendship’. Then again, his emotions were just jumbled up here lately.

The rest of the day was a bit subdued after the words that had been exchanged, mostly due to Joey thinking over everything. Though, Michael had pulled away a bit which was evident when they went to bed that night. Rather than flopping over him, the older teen had simply curled up on ‘his’ side of the bed. On the other hand, the weather _was_ overly warm. So, Joey didn’t know if Michael was thinking things over or if it was simply too hot to be next to someone and he was reading into things too much.

Still, Joey was prone to overthinking things when it came to people. He didn’t like the idea of Michael being scared of him. They were _friends_ , and friends weren’t scared of each other. So, he pondered on what he could do. While dinosaur made up the bulk of their diet, other meats such as bird, tended to be a bit of a delicacy. Mostly because they were a massive pain in the ass to catch. Still, with him getting up during the pre-dawn hours to roam, he figured he’d be able to easily catch a couple birds while they slept.

This wasn’t really the case. He wasn’t the skilled climber that Michael was and he tended to spook the damn birds before he got close enough to grab them. That being said, Joey was stubborn. It took several days and countless tries before he was finally able to catch something. It was a brilliantly colored parrot of some sort, but it was decently sized. Honestly, the coloration was just an added bonus. With his prize in hand, he made the trek back to the cave and presented it to Michael.

The older teen was confused, but thankful for the gift, “It’s been awhile since I’ve had bird, but…Why’d you catch it? It’s easier to hunt dinosaurs.”

“I was bored and…I felt like it.” Joey was confused for an entirely different reason. Why did he feel…Anxious all of a sudden? It was as if he needed Michael’s approval over the bird…Which didn’t really make sense, all things considered.

Finally, Michael shrugged and gestured towards the waterfall to indicate for Joey to go outside, “Well, I’m not gonna complain. Com’on. I’ll give you half.”

“So, you like it?”

“Yep. Bird is pretty good and I haven’t gotten to have it for a while.” He sat down on a rock and started plucking the bird before he butchered it. Once he was done, he gave half to Joey to eat.

As he ate, Joey couldn’t help but feel pleased at the acceptance of his gift; he’d have to go hunting for more in the morning. It seemed to be a step in the right direction. The only problem was that he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get more parrots. Although, Michael _had_ said ‘bird’ as a general term. He’d just have to experiment.

Over the next few days, he caught and brought Michael several different birds. They were of larger species since the older teen had insisted on sharing the first one. None of the gifts had been turned down which absolutely thrilled Joey. To top things off, he’d started waking up with the other flopped over his back again. For him, this meant things were going back the way they had been before the little verbal spat.

One morning, Joey blearily opened his eyes and slowly stretched…He felt unwilling to get up due to how comfortable he was. Above him, Michael made a sleepy noise which hinted that he was beginning to wake up as well. The noise was followed by a yawn. After a moment, Joey lightly butted his head against Michael’s with a low, throaty purr before he stretched again. He wasn’t entirely sure how early in the day it was, but either it was early in the morning or it was raining.

“What was that about?” Michael asked as he rolled off of Joey’s back and onto his own back.

“I’unno. Felt like it.”

Rather than replying, Michael just made a soft humming noise before he rolled over onto his stomach and pressed the top of his head against the side of Joey’s. Then, he puzzled over why he had responded that way. It had felt like the proper automatic response. He shrugged it off and climbed over the other to take a peek outside. “It’s raining.”

“Oh thank God. Maybe I won’t feel like my brain is cooking when I go outside.” Joey finally dragged himself out of the bed and joined Michael at the cave entrance. “You want to come with for hunting or just stay here?”

“I’ll come with. It’s actually cool enough to do things.”

Just as they had countless times before, Joey placed himself downwind of the herd and waiting for Michael to spook the dinosaurs so that he could hunt one down. Once the Gally was dead, Joey called to the other hybrid. However, unlike he usually did, he didn’t start eating right away. Instead, he waited for Michael to show up and start eating before he began eating.

Michael found this to be strange, but really didn’t care as he ripped into his meal. Every now and then, Joey would lightly nose the side of his head. Finally, he tilted his head to bump it into the side of Joey’s muzzle with a soft purr. For whatever reason, this seemed to be what the other was after and he went back to eating.

The trip back home was uneventful beyond it starting to rain harder. Neither really minded since it helped to wash off the blood from breakfast. Once they reached the cave, Michael paused at the entrance to wring out his hair while Joey changed back and flopped down on the bed. A moment later, Michael sat down next to him.

“So…I did some thinking on the trip back.” Michael hesitated, but decided to just spit it out. “You’re flirting with me.”

“…Huh?” Joey opened his eyes to look over at Michael, feeling a bit confused. As far as he knew he wasn’t doing that. Then again, he really didn’t know what would qualify as ‘flirting’.

Michael tilted his head back and sighed. “I’ve been thinking about everything that’s been going on lately and I only now just realized what you’re doing. You’re…Basically raptor flirting. I used to just hang out in the trees and watch the raptors. I…Didn’t know what I really was at the time and so I’d watch them to compare it against me. In the dry months…The bachelor males who got kicked out of the packs would either try to take over another pack or establish their own territory and then go off to try and attract a female.”

“That doesn’t really explain why what you think I’m doing is flirting.”

“I’m getting there. Anyway. Once he found himself one, he’d start bringing her little things. Food, usually. Saw one who tended to find shiny, reflective stuff. Starts letting her eat first and lots of head touching, nosing…Purring. Aaaand then eventually….” Michael made a gesture with his hands to indicate sex.

Joey sat up and stared at Michael for a long moment. All of the behavior was very, very familiar. Once it clicked, his face flushed in embarrassment and he looked away. Then he stammered, “I-I didn’t know. I’ll stop.”

“…I didn’t know either and I haven’t exactly been trying to stop you…Kinda the opposite, actually.”

“So what do we do?” Joey looked up, feeling utterly confused about the entire matter. It didn’t really make much sense to him; he’d just been going with what felt right.

“I don’t know. What do you want to do? It’s your thing…I don’t have those instincts, just enough to react to what you’re doing.”

“But you said it leads to…” Joey vaguely gestured, “How would that even work?”

Michael shrugged, “We’d figure it out if it came to that, I guess. It’s kinda weird…But it’s not bad? I don’t know. I’m sort of just rolling with it right now. It’s not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me.”

The bit of humor that Michael injected into the conversation made Joey feel a bit better about the whole situation. “I…Guess we can see what happens, if you’re alright with it. If thing start turning bad, I can take off for a bit.”

“I’ve been actively encouraging it. I’d say that I’m apparently more than okay with it.” He leaned forward to bump the side of Joey’s head with his.

Joey smiled slightly and laid back down, then curled up on his side to get comfortable. A moment later, Michael laid down with his back against Joey’s. Between the sound of the waterfall and the low rumbles of thunder, it was easy to doze off into an early afternoon nap.

The next few days saw Joey pulling back slightly with his affections towards Michael. It was mostly because he wasn’t entirely sure about things. The desire, want, and instinct was still there, but he just wasn’t sure. It was a struggle to fight against it and doing so left him feeling frustrated and even more moody than before. Finally, he simply gave in.

The sensation of Michael rolling off of his back woke him up and without much thought, he lightly nuzzled the side of his head. It was barely dawn, and far too early for him to want to get up. He had really meant the nuzzle as a sort of sleepy ‘hello’, but the gesture was returned to him with the addition of a low purr. This caused him to move his head down to Michael’s neck and make a soft, throaty, opened mouthed purr that ended in almost a low trill.

“…You wanna?” Michael asked, softly.

Joey hesitated on his answer, knowing what was being asked. “...I think so. Do you?”

Rather than answering, Michael gently pulled Joey on top of him. It was awkward to figure out what went where; neither had experience of any sort in the matter. Still, with some fumbling Joey figured it out. He was really only interested in his own gratification and Michael’s enjoyment really didn’t factor into things. In the general scheme of things, it didn’t really matter. Joey lasted barely any amount of time before he was finished and had flopped over on his side in a bit of a stupor.

Michael laid there for a moment, somewhat uncomfortable. Not only did he feel a bit sore, he had basically gotten zero enjoyment out of the whole deal due to how short the sex had lasted. While he was no expert on the matter, far from it in fact, he suspected that it was supposed to last a _little_ bit longer than a handful of thrusts. He rolled his eyes slightly before getting up to finish himself off. It was no surprise to him that Joey had already fallen back to sleep when he returned to the bed.

Still, he had been the one to encourage the entire matter, so he couldn’t put all the blame on the younger teen…Just most of it. On the other hand, he supposed that he shouldn’t be too harsh on him. Thanks to their combined inexperience, it had taken some time to figure everything out and Joey had been more than ready. If there were future instances, maybe it’d go better than the first. At the very least, it had served as a good learning experience.

As much as Joey wanted another round when he woke up, he also recognized that Michael was in some discomfort from the sex they had that morning. Despite that, he felt frustrated and thanks to the fumbling that morning, could finally pinpoint what _type_ of frustration he felt. Honestly, it explained a lot.

So, Joey impatiently waited for Michael to feel better. Despite this, he still offered plenty of affection towards the other teen and in Michael’s eyes, was goddamned persistent to the point of being annoying. While Joey didn’t outright verbally ask for sex, he asked plenty using body language which Michael could read quite well.

The next two days saw Michael shooing Joey off to go hunt so that he could get a few hours of peace. He supposed he shouldn’t blame the other hybrid so much for being caught up in instinct, but goddamn. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to, he definitely wanted to…He was just hesitant because he wasn’t keen on a repeat of the first time and how he’d been left frustrated. Still, he relented one morning when Joey did his usual gentle headbutt greeting.

Joey was caught slightly off guard when Michael suddenly nuzzled and lightly nipped the side of his neck. It didn’t hurt, but it was definitely suggestive of something. “…You feel—”

“Yeah.”

As he was prone to do, he’d thought over how their first attempt had gone and figured from the few movies he’d seen with sex scenes that it wasn’t supposed to be that short…Plus Michael had kinda grumbled at him after the fact about how he hadn’t exactly enjoyed it. While he hadn’t really been blamed, he had still felt a bit bad about it.

He made a quiet noise at the slight bite of Michael’s claws down his back; it didn’t really hurt and he honestly enjoyed it a bit. Unlike their first time, he had a considerably better idea of what to do and fumbled less; although Michael still made a soft sound of discomfort. It took him a moment to find a pace that he like and unlike the first time, the teen under him made a low noise then wrapped his legs around his waist.

Joey buried his face against the other’s neck as he moved, his breathing coming out as raspy, throaty purrs. He barely heard the demand for ‘harder’ through the blood pounding in his ears, but he was absolutely not against the idea. At least until he felt the sharp pain of Michael’s claws digging into his shoulders and being dragged down his back. He made a noise of pain, even as his hips bucked into the other male. Slowly, he sagged down against Michael, not really caring about the warm wetness on the other’s stomach. Then, he eased himself onto his side with a groan.

“…Holy fuck.” Michael mumbled as he laid there.

“Ow. My back. You _fucker_.” While Joey had enjoyed himself, again, his back wasn’t entirely pleased with the events of the morning.

“…What?”

“My back. You shredded it. Dick.”

“…Sorry. I kinda…Sorry.” Michael carefully got up to wetten some fabric under the waterfall in order to clean off his stomach. Then he moved back over to Joey to do the same. “Roll onto your stomach.”

Joey winced and did so while Michael briefly left to rinse out the fabric. When he returned, he lightly dabbed at the injuries he’d inflicted. “…You know, you could shift in heal them.”

“…I’un care right now. Sleepy.”

Michael just rolled his eyes and tossed the fabric away before he laid down next to Joey. He eyed the sluggishly bleeding injuries which were already trying to clot. “We’ll have to figure out something so I don’t shred your back every time.”

Joey’s voice was muffled from where he had his face shoved in the bedding, “Uhhuh. Less talking. More sleeping.”

This just made Michael shake his head, but he briefly butted his head against Joey’s before he settled down to go back to sleep.


	10. Round Two. Fight

The rainy season had swung around again which prompted the two hybrids to venture further south for their hunting. It meant more walking, but this was how things had gone since they had started living together. Their hunting followed the different herbivore herds, and while it occasionally meant they clashed with some of the smaller carnivores, they still ate well. Joey didn’t really mind this idea, since he actually enjoyed testing himself against the other carnivores, much to Michael’s dismay. He considered it reckless, but Joey didn’t care.

Much like the seasons, the two had continued to mature and change. Michael had just about stopped growing and had kept his lanky build. He could easily outrun Joey as long as the younger teen stayed human. Even then, on open ground, he could outsprint Joey as a raptor. However, he was easily winded. Despite the passage of time, he still hadn’t grown any facial hair. A fact that Joey often teased him for. Of course, Michael would usually point out that what Joey had started to grow was far from impressive, much to the other’s annoyance.

Joey, meanwhile, had continued to grow like a weed. Despite being younger than Michael, he was nearly the same height and wasn’t really showing signs of slowing down, either. While he had remained lanky, he had started to get a broader build, especially with his shoulders. This was something that had been echoed by his raptor form. No longer was he the same size as the island raptors; instead he was longer, taller, and much heavier.

The biggest raptor they had encountered, as of late, had only come up to Joey’s shoulder and was several feet shorter. He had also started to get a bulkier build compared to the slim island raptors. While he was still somewhat lanky, he gave the impression of being a much like a leggy two-year-old colt who hadn’t quite started to fill in yet. His mottles had all but faded away and had started to be replaced by dark green stripes, hinting at his maturation. As a final touch, his past…Adventures had left noticeable scarring. A jagged mark down his left thigh from where he’d done surgery on himself and claw marks down his back from Michael during their second time together.

Really, it just served to make him look scarier to the local raptor populations. To them, he was a sub-adult male who already had a lot of fighting experience. Rarely did he have to defend his territory around the cave. In a way, this disappointed Joey. He honestly enjoyed the dominance spats that he’d gotten into. Still, fighting all the time wasn’t really conductive to hunting.

It was late morning when the two made their way down a worn path, their feet sinking into the muck caused by the storm earlier that morning. Since it had been a relative heavy downpour, they had opted to stay in bed for the better part of the morning. The jungle around them was unusually quiet, something that Joey picked up on.

“I wonder if the storm this morning has the herd spooked.” He mused as he scratched at a bug bite on his jaw, then made a face at the patchy scruff he felt. As much as the other hybrid had teased him about the patchy hair on his face, Joey couldn’t argue against it.

“It shouldn’t have. It wasn’t that bad…Just a lot of rain. They would have bedded down, but not much else.” But then Michael paused and sniffed the air, “Smell something injured.”

Joey looked around as he sniffed the air, but when he didn’t smell anything, he shifted. He scented the air and caught a whiff of blood before he started off in a direction. What he stumbled across surprised him: a dead raptor. Flies swarmed around its eyes, nose, mouth, and a few areas where it’d already been eaten on by Compys. But that wasn’t what drew his attention. He shifted back to human and crouched down before he wordlessly pointed out the bullet hole in its head to Michael.

A half second later, Michael crouched down next to him. “It’s not smelling that strong yet…Not bloated either.”

“Late last night or early this morning?” Joey asked and looked over to the other who nodded his agreement. This gave him cause for concern. “Might be why we haven’t heard the herd. The gunfire would have probably startled them into stampeding.”

Michael made a noise of agreement and started south towards their usual hunting field; normally the musical bellows of the Paras would have already been echoing from the south. When they reached the edge of the tree line, they both paused. The grass had been trampled, as if the entire herd has spooked…And there were tire tracks that zig zagged around the grassland.

With a low growl, Joey slunk into the grass to further examine things. There, he found boot prints mingled with the herbivore foot prints…As well as the rest of the raptor pack, also shot. Not all of the raptors had died a clean death as the first had; many of them had bled out while running. He stood up and quietly looked over his shoulder at Michael. “…I think the whole pack was killed. I’m recognizing a lot of the raptors. They might have a few adults still at their nest but…”

“But the pack is as good as dead with this many dead. The adults at the nest will probably abandon it if the eggs aren’t destroyed by whatever pack takes over.”

Joey nodded, “The soldiers came back…But we’ve been finding stuff like this,” he nudged the raptor he was standing next to with his foot, “since we first saw them.”

“They might have stayed further south and we never ran into them since we stick to the northern end of the island.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Joey sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he looked towards the south. “They’re probably still looking for me, too.”

“You’re thinking. Wanna share with the rest of the class?”

“We still have those traps we made during the last wet season. Once we get some food, we can grab those and head south…Cause some trouble.” Joey sent the dead raptor a sympathetic look. “Figure out what the hell they’re up to.”

Michael sort of rolled his eyes but was far from surprised. “I thought that’s what you had in mind.”

“Look. I’m just worried that they might be killing off other dinosaurs. If they start knocking off herbivores, that means bad news for us.” He saw carnivores as competition, and the fewer of those around meant more food for him…But the herbivores were a stable of his diet and if those started disappearing? Survival on the island would suddenly get a lot tougher.

“Yeah. Alright.” Michael knew his control of the ‘pack’ was slowly slipping, since the other male had been trying to take on more and more of a leadership role. However, he figured that as long as Joey continued to listen to his side of things, the younger male hadn’t completely taken control of things. Then again, their little pack dynamic was a great deal different than what raptors usually had.

By the time they finished eating and had started making their way south, it was early afternoon. The sun tried to peek through the clouds, but the dark clouds in the west hinted at more rain. Joey knew from experience that rain could either help or hinder his hunt…And it was far too early to tell which it would be. Still, they discovered fresh vehicle tracks on the old roads used by InGen so many years ago.

“No idea which way these were headed…But this road keeps going south, right?” Joey looked over to Michael.

“It heads south to the Worker Village, loops around the south end of the grass fields, heads north past the landing strip to the Labs…Aw fuck.” Michael stopped walking and glanced to the north behind them. “The road goes past the cave to the west a bit towards that mountain to the north of the cave…The entire fucking reason why I picked the cave in particular was because the fucking road made it easy to get to the beach. Goddammit.”

“…Which means we can’t lay low at home like I know you want to do.” Joey knew quite well that Michael prefer to essentially tuck tail and hide when it came to most confrontations, but this was something that couldn’t be ignored. Sure, the soldiers might not find them, but if they did? The cave would turn into a giant trap.

“No, you’re right. We can’t sit around and do nothing. It’s pretty obvious that the cave is lived in…They’d just keep looking for us if we weren’t there…And if we were…” Michael had come to a similar conclusion as Joey. He sighed and looked towards the road in front of them. “They came from the south last time. It’s worth checking to see if that’s where they set up this time.”

“I wonder if they even left.” Joey mused as they continued walking down the middle of the road. “Also makes me wonder if the carnivores we’ve been finding dead since the last wet season is from them. I mean, we always found the remains several days after the fact.”

“The island isn’t exactly human friendly, Joey. They’d need to have supplies brought in…But I think you’re right about the dinosaurs. I’ve ran across bodies before, sure, but the amount here lately is way, way too much. And all of them looked like they were young animals too.”

“Isn’t that what Kurt did? You said he left to work on the island in…What, ’98?” He glanced over at Michael, knowing the topic of the other’s dad was still a touchy one at times.

“Well, yeah, but he was also underground. I doubt the soldiers managed to get underground bunkers.”

“The guy survived here for at least three years…And I doubt he was a trained survivalist. Pretty sure a bunch of armed soldiers would end up lasting longer than one crazy ass doctor.” Joey noted. Neither of them knew what had happened to Kurt. Some time ago, they had both agreed that the scientist needed to die. But when they went to the labs to kill him, they found the labs abandoned. It was hard to say if the man had been killed or if he’d left the island to pursue more nefarious deeds.

“I know, I know. I’m just saying I don’t think they’ve been staying. I think they’ve been showing up for a little bit and then leaving. Doesn’t really matter, either way. They kinda need to be dealt with.” Michael adjusted the vines attached to the traps he was carrying so that they didn’t dig into his shoulder as badly.

“ _Wow_. You actually want to willingly kill some people instead of running home like a chickenshit. I might actually be rubbing off on you.” He glanced over at Michael who gave him a dirty look.

“Shut it, asshole.”

When they reached the southern part of the island, a slow drizzle fell from the sky…And the tracks became more numerous. In the distance, was the sound of some sort of dinosaur bellowing in panic which was arguably more concerning than the sounds of machinery. As they got closer to the shore, they saw a perimeter with numerous armed guards patrolling. Behind that, however, was a ship where caged dinosaurs were being loaded; many of them looked to be herbivores.

“There’s no way we can take on all those soldiers.” Michael whispered. “And I’m not letting you walk in there like last time, either.”

“Fuck no. That’d be suicide…On both ideas.” With a sigh, Joey looked at the four traps between them. “These won’t do shit, either. Man, this is bad.”

The last time, there had only been five soldiers, and Joey had about gotten his ass kicked bad enough that he’d needed several days of down time to recover. It wasn’t something he wanted a repeat of, either. Sure, he was a bit older, a lot more experienced, and bigger, but…There was also way, way more than just five soldiers. “I think I’ve counting twenty or so, but…Can’t see all of the camp, I don’t think.”

Michael shed the two traps he had and started climbing up the tree they were next to but paused when his leg was grabbed. “What?”

“Michael…Be careful. Don’t get yourself shot.”

“Look who’s being cautious. I’ll be fine…And yes, I’ll be careful.” He kept climbing and disappeared into the canopy while Joey waited patiently.

Several minutes passed before Michael returned, looking unhappy. “They have the whole section of the beach set up with a perimeter and there’s a ton more soldiers than what you can see here. I don’t think we can lure them out, either.”

Joey frowned, “And sneaking in wouldn’t be a good idea right now. If we did anything, it’d be against patrols. Are you sure we can’t lure them out?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. They all seem pretty confident.”

Suddenly, Joey got an idea. “Did you see any paths that looked like they were used a lot?”

“...Yeah, I saw a…Oh. The traps.” Michael looked down at the traps next to Joey, then back up to the other who had a slight grin.

“It’ll kill or injure only four people, but we might get them to come out into the jungle by causing some trouble. If they spread out to try and find us…”

“We can pick them off.” Michael nodded and grabbed two of the traps. “I’ll head to the far north. There’s a path slightly to your south and then one to your north. Let’s meet back here once we get them set up.”

After Michael had left, Joey headed off to rig the two traps he had with him. Decidedly, he’d set up the southern one first and then loop around to set up the northern one before he returned to the tree. When he reached the first path and found a suitable trap location, he ran into a slight issue: he didn’t know the general height of the soldiers. Finally, he went with something that was right below his rib cage. That location seemed to be one that’d cause the most damage. He wanted to kill the soldiers, if it was possible. It took him a few minutes to rig the first trap and to hide it from view, but once he was satisfied, he headed off to get the second one set up in much the same way.

Then, he made his way back to where he was supposed to meet Michael. There, he waited…And waited…And waited. Just when he was about to go looking for the other hybrid, Michael dropped down next to him.

“Sorry. Had to duck a patrol while I was heading back here. Pretty sure I killed one of them by dropping a rock on his head.”

“How sure?”

“…He didn’t get back up?”

Joey couldn’t help but crack a smile at the other, but before he could speak there was a scream from the south followed by yelling. “Split up or tag team?”

“Let’s split up. I’ll take the trees, you take the ground.”

“Alright. Take care of yourself.” He leaned over to bump the side of Michael’s head with his own. The action had become a means of showing affection for each other, as well as a morning greeting. While he didn’t know if Michael shared the same feelings of affection, he had always returned Joey’s attentions.

“Don’t get yourself shot like last time.” Michael warned before he climbed back up the tree.

Joey started off towards where he’d heard the screaming. There, he found two soldiers leaned over a third who was on his back on the ground. Jutting out of his chest were the bone spikes from the trap; the smell of blood hung heavy in the air, even to his somewhat human senses. From the sounds of things, the man was still alive…But it was hard to tell how long that’d last. Neither of the soldiers were paying attention to the path behind them and their attention was on their injured comrade; he darted across the path, causing a bit of rustling.

One of the men stood up and slowly moved down the path, sweeping back and forth with his rifle. Joey remained crouched in the greenery to the man’s left and looked for something that might serve as a good distraction. Finally, he picked up a half-rotted chunk of wood and flung it across the path, further to the left while the man had looked to the right. It didn’t make much noise, but it was just enough to cause the soldier to walk past Joey.

Perfect. He shifted and charged, catching the soldier’s midsection in his jaws. The man screamed but was quickly cut off when his head slammed into a tree trunk; with how his head was caved in, it was unlikely he’d be a further threat. Joey dropped him and snagged the rifle on the ground. He honestly had no idea about proper shooting, reloading, or any of that. So, he didn’t grab extra magazine since trying to reload might just result in him getting shot. Besides, the noise of the rifle would attract attention. On the other hand, he figured he could take out a couple of the soldiers before he ran out of bullets.

He glanced at the side of the rifle and flipped the safety off then headed back to where the final soldier had been at. The man was standing next to several more soldiers who had likely come to provide aid…and they all looked pretty damn alert. Too bad he was behind them. He shouldered the rifle and rather than aiming at their torsos, he aimed for their heads. They had body armor and he had no idea if it would stop the bullets or not. After another second, he pulled the trigger.

The rifle was a fuckton louder than he anticipated, but he kept pulling the trigger in a burst fire at the soldiers. Quite a few of the bullets missed after the initial burst, but several of the men dropped after being hit. Someone screamed, “Contact!”

When he heard the click of the magazine being empty, he dropped the rifle and ran for deeper jungle. Behind him, one of the soldiers decided to return fire, but in the confusion they hadn’t gotten an accurate idea of where he’d been firing from. To his north, someone else screamed. Rather than bothering with the men behind him, he decided it was time to pay the next trap a visit.

Much like the first trap, there were several soldiers. However, all of these were alert and looking around. Slowly, he circled to try and find a good opening to attack. He didn’t want to just charge them…That’s be a fantastic way to get shot. Once had been enough, thanks.

“Group to the south of us said they’ve taken heavy casualties. Got attacked by some dinosaur before they got fired on.”

“Friendly fire?”

“Don’t think so.”

Someone from further up the path yelled something and attracted the attention of the group. If that wasn’t a giant ‘attack now’ sign, Joey didn’t know what would be. Thirty seconds later, he was tearing through the jungle while dragging one of the soldiers by his leg. Naturally, the guy was screaming bloody murder and yelling for help. He finally stopped running and gutted the man.

“…Oh God…”

Joey’s head popped up at the voice and he locked eyes with someone who barely looked older than he did. Rather than raising his rifle, the man seemed frozen…Even as Joey turned to face him with a clicking growl.

“IT’S THE HYBRID!” He yelled, but the next sound he made was a scream when Joey pounced onto him and ripped into his throat.

Distantly, he heard Michael calling to him; he could also hear several soldiers steadily approaching. Time to make himself scarce. He turned and darted into the undergrowth. The only signs he’d been there were the two bodies and his foot prints. As he headed north towards where he’d heard the bark, he passed several more bodies on the ground. Most of them had their throats clawed out; one of them had a knife jabbed into his neck.

He scented Michael nearby and quietly called to him; the other hybrid made a soft noise which prompted Joey to turn back human. After ducking into the undergrowth, he gave the other a quick glance over to ensure he wasn’t harmed. While the other teen was bloody, the blood had come from his clawed hands and were smears from where he’d touched his face. On top of things, Michael had pilfered the pants from someone; the older hybrid had always drawn an issue with running around nude…An issue that Joey had quickly gotten over.

“You’ve been busy.” He whispered as he looked towards the distant yelling to their south.

“So have you…But I got us a toy.” Michael held up a radio that was currently turned off. “Grabbed this off someone. Figure we can turn it on when we get home. Battery probably won’t last too long but…”

“We might get a heads up if they start our way.” Joey finished for him.

“Yup. Think we should head back home. We put a dent in their numbers and have them pretty spooked.”

Joey made a noise of agreement and quietly followed after Michael. He waited till they were a good distance away from the camp before he spoke again, just to make sure no one heard him. “One of the guys saw me as a raptor. Yelled out that I was a hybrid. I don’t know if they know I can change or not…But they know I’m not some random raptor.”

“Makes sense. You said last time they had a picture of you. Hope we caused enough trouble that they’ll fuck off for a while.”

The skies had darkened considerably by the time they reached the cave, hinting that the weather was about to turn sour. Joey sat down on the bed and fiddled with the radio to turn it on. Most of the conversation was idle chatter and coordinates were given rather than locations he was familiar with. Michael had taken to digging through the pants he’d stolen for extra goodies. In one of the pockets was a cell phone. He turned it on and glanced at the date. July 16th, 2005.

“Command has given the orders to pull out. We’ve taken heavy casualties and we have numerous wounded. Pack up and return to base; extraction is at 1600.”

Michael walked over to the bed and sighed, “That’s some good news, for sure…But I’m not sure they’re going to give up. The soldiers were talking about how they were needing to meet a quota for a ‘park’.”

“What kinda park?”

“I don’t know. They had a bunch of boats…It almost looked like they’re trying to grab every dinosaur they can off the island.” Michael took the radio when Joey handed it to him and turned it off before storing it away. It’d be smart to try and conserve the battery for as long as possible so they could periodically check it for activity.

“It worries me.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Michael gently pushed Joey over onto his side before laying down on his stomach and resting the side of his head on the younger hybrid’s hip. “We should make more traps…I don’t think that this is the last time we’ll see them.”

Joey gently ran his fingers through the other’s hair before he brushed them down the side of his face. “Yeah. We should. Dunno when they’re going to come back, but I think you’re right. We can do that tomorrow though. I’m tired.”


	11. Morality Lost

They clashed with the soldiers several more times over the seasons and usually ended on top. That wasn’t to say that Joey didn’t drag back to the cave with injuries. Much to his displeasure, he’d ended up getting shot a few times. Thankfully, they weren’t nearly as bad as the first time. That was something he didn’t want to repeat.

Michael had finished growing several seasons ago and had largely remained the same in appearance beyond the addition of a slight bit more muscle. He was still a sprinter and a great deal more agile than Joey. In the scheme of things, it worked out nicely: he scouted things out and then Joey came in to absolutely wreck everything.

Joey tapered down on his growth a bit and was now taller than the other hybrid…But he had started to lose the lanky look. He was broader shouldered and a lot more solidly build that Michael was. Not to mention, his facial hair had stopped being so patchy, a novelty that quickly wore off. It tended to be very annoying in the heat.

Unsurprisingly, his raptor form mirrored his human changes. While his movements gave the sense that he was slow, they hid a raw, explosive power. This was always evident when he hunted. Sometimes, he hunted like a raptor…Creeping up on his prey and pouncing them at the last minute. Other times, he hunted like something else entirely. He would chase his prey and simply slam into them, using his weight as a weapon before using powerful jaws to break necks. His physical strength hadn’t been the only change. The dark green stripes had brightened into something vivid and the hints of a green blush had started on his head. Michael had once remarked that his Murder Raptor was finally growing up.

What issues they’d had when they first met had all but disappeared and that included the little dominance spats that had occasionally happened. Joey had finally adopted the leadership role of ‘Pack Kickass’, but still took to heart what Michael said. While sex usually didn’t happen as frequently as it did during the dry seasons, it usually left both of them somewhat bloody. Michael always liked using his claws and finally, Joey got tired enough of it and started biting back.

This was why Michael was currently rinsing the blood off his shoulder and trying to examine the teeth marks out of the corner of his eyes. “If I didn’t like you so much, I’d deck you for biting me so hard.”

“Well, maybe you should keep your claws to yourself or lemme go from behind.” Joey couldn’t help but glare at the other as he reached behind himself to lightly touch the ridged scars that covered his back.

“Nuh. I like being able to nuzzle.”

Joey could only roll his eyes. About the only time they argued anymore was when it came to sex and positioning. But honestly, it couldn’t even really be considered an argument. Neither of them really got hurt and they both enjoyed the end result. More than anything, it was just idle sniping. He had a bit of a smartass retort on the tip of his tongue when the angry roar of a rex broke the quiet. It was quickly followed by gunfire and then another one, but this time of pain. He shot Michael a look. “…They’re back.”

“Should we grab the traps?”

“No, that’s probably a scouting group. Besides, they’re probably wise to our tricks now.”

Michael made a sound of agreement as he climbed out from under the waterfall to look towards where the sounds had come from. “Ought to pay them a visit incase they managed to take down the rex.”

“I doubt they managed, but you’re right.”

The lack of additional noise made it hard to find where the ‘fight’ had been. All they really had to go off of was a general westerly direction. Still, when they found rex footprints, Michael noted that they were probably headed in the right direction.

It was a low moan that clued them in to where the rex was and Joey was hesitant to go investigate. The few rexes on the island were one of the only things that scared him. There had been the spinosaurus, but it disappeared some time back. “It sounds injured. Might be pissy.”

Rather than replying, Michael pressed forward, much to the frustration of Joey. Still, they both froze when the found the rex. It was a juvenile, not even half grown and likely had just left the nest to be on its own. Softly, it moaned again before letting out a harsh exhale and tried to get up only to sag back down against the ground again. A pool of blood had formed under its mangled neck where it had bubbled out with each heartbeat.

Between the gunfire and earlier roars, it was pretty easy to guess what had happened. Michael took a step forward, only to have his arm grabbed by Joey who shook his head. This only caused the older hybrid to glare.

“We can’t just leave it.”

“And what are you going to do, Michael? It’s dying. You’re not going to be able to do anything to save it or hurry things along. As shitty as it is, it’s just better to leave it alone.” While Joey wouldn’t deny he sometimes played with his prey, he always killed them in the end. He didn’t leave them to suffer, not like this.

Despite Joey being right, Michael still gave him a glare. Finally, he growled. “I wanna find them.”

“So do I. They couldn’t have gone far.” A moment later, he’d shifted to his raptor form and was sniffing around to try and figure out where the soldiers had gone. After a few more minutes, he had the trail and was quietly stalking after them with Michael at his hip.

Truthfully, it didn’t take very long for him to find the group of six soldiers. They were happily chatting about how the island wasn’t as dangerous now that most of the carnivores were dead or removed. To Joey, this wasn’t exactly bad news…But then again, he’d seen them loading up herbivores, which meant all the dinosaurs were at risk. While he hadn’t seen any herbivores being shot, there was a part of him that couldn’t rule out the idea.

A light tap to his hip caused him to look over to Michael who pointed up. Joey gave a nod before he tilted his head and made a nodding motion towards the left. Michael also gave a nod and then quickly scaled up a tree. Crouching down slightly, Joey began circling to the left of the group. They had always found that hit and run tactics worked the best against the soldiers. Michael would drop something from above, usually injuring or killing someone, and then Joey would plow right through the middle of them. In most cases, he was able to trample someone…At the very least. The two of them had started to excel at taking out small groups of soldiers.

That resulted in a problem. The two of them had either willingly or unwillingly left enough survivors to report back about their tactics. Considering they ever bothered to change things up, the soldiers were wise to what the two were doing. When one soldier dropped to the ground due to a rock hitting his head, the others moved to shoot into the canopy in the general area where the rock had fallen from. This caused Michael to bolt, making a great deal of noise as he did so which only allowed the soldiers to keep track of him.

Sure, Joey came charging in a few seconds later, but rather than focusing on him, the soldiers simply split their attention between the two hybrids. This made it difficult for him since it limited where he could attack from. On the other hand, in their attempt to alert each other on when they were reloading, he had an opening. The frustrating thing was, he knew Michael was on the ground somewhere and neither of them could call to each other for fear of giving away their positioning.

But before he could launch his attack, there was sudden movement on the other side of the clearing: Michael was still trying to draw their attention away from Joey. One of them opened fire at him as he ran. Joey crouched down to pounce, but it was the sudden screech of pain from Michael that got his attention. The screech was followed by the other hybrid darting off in to the undergrowth while making an alarm call. Never, in all the time he’d known the other, had he made that call outside of play. Something was wrong. Despite his desire to continue attack the soldiers in front of him, Joey turned and took off after Michael.

He found him a short distance away, leaning against a tree with his hand clamped tightly against his lower stomach; blood seeped from between his fingers. He had no idea if the other had simply been clipped or if it was a more severe injury. Not wanting to stick around in case the soldiers followed, Joey ducked his head down between Michael’s leg to force the other onto his back. He heard a groan and felt claws dig down deep into his shoulder as Michael tried to balance himself. Despite the pain, he ran for home. His only focus was Michael and making sure he was alright…But the amount of blood he smelled…

By the time he reached the cave, Joey was gasping for air. His lungs burned and his legs were on fire, but he stumbled to their bed before he crouched down and turned human; he couldn’t rest just yet. This allowed Michael to gently roll off of Joey and onto his back. Joey gathered up some cloth from the bed and pressed it against the bullet wound, but the bedding under the other hybrid was beginning to turn red with blood, as well.

“How bad?” Michael groaned. Injuries were nothing new. Usually it was Joey who needed to be patched up, though. He’d been injured, sure, but it’d only been limited to bruises or sprains; the injuries received during sex notwithstanding.

“It went through. I-I don’t know if I can do anything. Keep pressure on that.” Joey gathered more bedding to press it against Michael’s lower back before he dragged the other into his lap. He positioned Michael so that his lower back was against Joey’s thigh; this helped keep the bedding pressed against the injury to try and stem the flow of blood. It also gave him two free hands…One to apply pressure against the injury on Michael’s stomach, and the other to wrap around his chest. The elder hybrid held tightly onto Joey’s arm with one hand.

As it was, Michael had lost a lot of blood, and Joey could only hope that the other would hang on long enough to clot and start healing…But with how his breathing was making a Godawful rasp and how shallow it was? An indescribable feeling twisted in his stomach. It was fear, panic, and anger, all wrapped up into a monstrous mess. “Michael…Don’t leave me here alone. _Please.”_

Michael wheezed out a laugh that ended in a groan of pain from the movement. He patted the side of Joey’s face, smearing it with blood; his normally bright eyes were dull and unfocused. “Me? Nah. I’ll live forever. Too fucking stubborn to die.”

“You better not.” Joey closed his eyes to fight the sting of tears he felt. However, he opened them again when Michael made a soft noise and his grip on Joey’s arm relaxed. He glanced down, the movement causing the other’s head to roll to the side.

“…Michael? Michael that’s not funny.” His breath felt tight in his chest and the burn of tears intensified as he felt around on the other’s chest for signs of breathing. “M-michael?”

He repeated the name of his mate again and lightly shook his arm. Despite their close contact, he couldn’t feel the other’s breathing. He swallowed and shifted his free hand up to feel for a pulse; his breath came out as short, rapid, gasps of fear at what he might find. Rather than feeling a steady thud, the skin on Michael’s neck was still.

“…Michael. No. No. Please. Don’t leave me.” His voice cracked as he begged the silence around him while his hand slipped back down to feel around on Michael’s chest for a heartbeat. The heart he’d listened to so many times before was silent.

He let go of the bloody bedding he’d been holding against Michael’s side to wrap his arms around the other’s chest. Joey buried his face against the other’s neck and cried. The sounds he made were a combination of human sobs and the soft, whining keens of a raptor. Even after the tears stopped and his breath was simply stuttered inhales, he kept his face pressed against Michael’s neck. It was the last time he’d ever smell the other’s scent and he wanted to ensure he had it committed to memory.

Numbly, he stared down at his hand. The blood had long since dried. He closed his eyes again and a low growl rumbled in his chest. The soldiers were still on the island and as far as he knew, the man who’d pulled the trigger was still alive. Michael had always tried to keep him on a moral path, a human path…Despite all of Joey’s attempts to fully leave his humanity behind, Michael had been what kept him from completely stepping over. Truth be told, the other hybrid had been pretty successful. He had helped to sooth Joey’s desire for violence. Now…

Well. Now it didn’t really matter, did it? Slowly, he shifted Michael onto the bed and carefully arranged his body into a position on his stomach that made him appear to be sleeping. He sat there a moment and stared down at Michael before brushing the others hair out of his face with a shaking hand. If he ignored the blood, he looked as if he was simply asleep.

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his wrist when they began to sting from more tears. Finally, he pushed himself to his feet to begin fetching rocks from outside the cave to bury the other under. It took time and made his already sore muscles ache, but he felt a small sense of mute satisfaction when he placed a large, round rock at the head of the pile. He supposed that it was fitting that Michael be buried in the cave that he had called home for so long.

Joey wasn’t going to come here again, so it didn’t really matter that he had turned the bed into a tomb. He took a final look around the cave that had served as his home for the past few years. It was filled with memories, and almost all of them involved the other hybrid. Ones of happiness; where him and Michael had laid in bed after a long day of roaming the island, simply talking. Ones of pain; where they’d dealt with Joey’s many injuries. But now…His memories of the cave were tainted. All he could think of was the soft sounds of pain Michael had made and the last breath he had taken.

There was still the matter of the soldiers to deal with and the thought of them filled him with a feral anger he’d never felt before.

He stalked out of the cave and shifted before retracing his steps back to where the fight had occurred. The soldiers had moved on; left their dead. Smart. He circled the area, discarding the scents of the dead till he picked up the scent of the survivors. Three. Bunched together; two healthy, one injured and bleeding.

He crouched down and tilted his head to examine the tracks. Side by side, short tracks. The injured one was being helped by the other two; likely a leg injury. Stupid; he’d just slow them down. With it being evening, he had the advantage. Softly, he made a chittering growl before he followed the trail. He had to change his tactics now; no longer did he had the advantage of someone making a distraction. That was fine…He wasn’t exactly a push over when it came to hunting.

Soon, he heard muted conversation in front of him.

“I’m still worried about the second one. I know you tagged the freak, but I’m worried he’ll come back. You’ve seen the intel.” The soldier in the middle commented before he groaned. “Hold up.”

“It was a gut shot. Pretty sure it went through. If it ain’t dead, it’s damn near it. I’m not worried about the other one. He took off like he was spooked.”

“Eugh. Fuckin’ leg. I hope your right, ‘cause we’re kinda sitting ducks right now.”

He tapped his toe claw against the ground and focused on Michael’s killer; he’d be the last to die. Joey had something special planned for him. Slowly, he circled around so that he was behind the group, then he charged them. As he did so, he lowered his head and caught the leg of the uninjured man in his jaws. Rather than stopping, he continued on, dragging the man with him. Behind him, he heard yells, along with the screams of the man he’d caught. This one wasn’t the killer…But he’d die all the same.

The screams only got worse when Joey began slamming the man’s head against a rock with a clawed hand. It was a completely unraptorlike action, but he was so, so much more. To say that he was livid was an understatement. He was beyond angry; he had settled into a calm state of single minded, murderous intent. Michael had joking called him his ‘Murder Raptor’, hadn’t he? Regardless, either he would kill the three soldiers, or he’d die in the process. Presently, the latter didn’t seem to be likely.

Finally, there was a wet crunch as the man’s skull caved in; the screaming suddenly stopped with a gurgle. He turned and started back towards where the other two were at. However, he only found the injured man, hiding behind a tree. Softly, he clicked as he ‘searched’; the man muffled a whimper as Joey snaked his head around the tree. He continued to muffle his whimpering, but then briefly screamed when his neck was grabbed. Joey slammed him down onto the ground, put a foot on his chest, and broke his neck. It had been a bit unnecessary; the soldier’s throat had already been pretty well mangled by his teeth…But Joey didn’t care. They had taken something very, very important from him.

This left the third and final soldier. Given that the injured one had been left behind, he surmised that the man had decided to cut his losses. They should have done that from the start because it would have allowed him to continue the hunt for a bit longer. Still, it didn’t take him any amount of time to pick up the trail and once he had eyes on his target, he changed back to human. Oh, this was very, very personal and he wanted the man to know who killed him.

He quietly snuck up behind the man before he grabbed his arm and slammed him face first into a tree. Before he could react, Joey had knocked the soldier to the ground and had him pinned down. There, he yanked the knife the other had out of its sheath and worked to cut away the chest armor. Out of curiosity, he pulled the chunky cell phone out of a pocket and checked the date on it. September 27th, 2008. Nearly seven years…

“Please! I-I have a family.”

Joey paused. It was so stereotypically cliché, but he supposed that it might work as a last-ditch effort…On someone else who wasn’t so angry. Still, he spoke, his voice was quiet. “Do you?”

“I’m married, and I have a daughter.”

“Too bad for them. I _might_ have had some sympathy…But…” Joey leaned down. “You killed my family…You killed the one person who would have stopped me.”

The solder tried to grab at the knife in his hand, but only ended up screaming when his wrist was broken.

“I don’t give a shit about your family.” He raised the knife, prompting a scream from the man under him; soft rustling in the undergrowth behind him caused him to pause, however.

Joey leaned down and covered the man’s mouth with two fingers; behind him, he heard soft, musical chirps. “Shh. Shh. Don’t worry…I’m not going to kill you.”

A look of confusion mingled with the one of pain crossed the others face as the soldier looked up at him, but he didn’t dare speak.

“They are.” Joey tilted his head towards the small group of four Compys that had crept out of the undergrowth and were watching the two, curiously. “They’re not picky eaters though. No problem with eating their dinner alive.”

The soldier’s eyes got wide as Joey leaned back to finish cutting away the armor. “No. No. Please!”

He tossed the body armor to the side and slammed the knife into the man’s lower stomach before he yanked it upwards towards his sternum. The soldier screamed as he was effectively gutted. Joey finally stood and stepped away, tossing the knife to the side as he did so. He stood there a moment and wiped the blood off his face while the four Compys began digging into their still screaming dinner.

The soldier flailed wildly at the small dinosaurs to try and knock them off, but that was the bad thing about Compys: they were like rats. Where there was one, there was bound to be five more hidden. As Joey stepped away, more Compys darted out of the undergrowth to join the first packmates. He lingered there for a moment and watched before he finally turned to walk away.

It was dusk by the time he made it to the beach the soldiers usually made their staging area; they had already left. The only thing that remained was the perimeter fencing and the tracks of the vehicles, men, and captured dinosaurs. He wasn’t really sure what to do now. His life, in a matter of hours, had been completely upheaved and he was essentially back to where he’d been when he first arrived on the island nearly seven years ago.

No. That wasn’t entirely true. He had his skills and he had his _gift_. Michael had always looked at his experimentation as a curse and truthfully had an unhealthy amount of self-loathing. He supposed that if he had come out a twisted mess of human and raptor that he’d feel the same. But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d become a survivor and he doubted that Michael would have wanted him to just roll over.

He looked towards the ocean for a moment before he turned and stalked back into the jungle. Rest would be a good idea…When morning arrived, he needed to find himself a new home.


	12. Apex Predator

The days following Michael’s death were rough. He often found himself calling him in after he had made a successful hunt, but then he always remembered a half moment later that he was alone now. Michael would never answer his call again. Eventually, he stopped calling. There wasn’t any point in it and there was the chance it would bring in other predators.

It took time to find a new home, and since he tended to wander now, he didn’t see the need to establish a new territory. Instead, he chose to make his home in the canopy of the trees after discovering a rotten area on a tree. Carving out the hole and removing the rotted wood had been time consuming, but it worked as a nice nest to sleep. Since he tended to wander, he didn’t need something massive like the cave.

He clashed with the soldiers a few times more, but actively avoided them. The only time he took them on was if they happened to stumble onto him…Otherwise, it wasn’t worth the risk. That wasn’t to say that if he found a loner he wouldn’t kill them. He had developed a violent hatred of them and the company they were employed by. InGen, he had learned. One of the soldiers had spilled everything he knew after some liberal… _Persuasion_.

So, life continued on. He finished maturing and became a prime example of his ‘species’. The slight green blush that had started on his head had continued to cover his head and partially went down his neck.  He also continued to gain muscle mass, making him unusually heavy bodied as far as raptors went. His human form had followed much the same path, although how much of that was naturally occurring and how much was due to his active lifestyle was hard to say.

Eventually, however, the soldiers sent by InGen stopped coming and around this time hunting began to get harder. There were fewer dinosaurs left on the island…Too few dinosaurs of breeding age, and the few remaining predators on the island didn’t help. He had to roam further and further to make kills, then instead of leaving the kill, he remained near it to eat on it for a few days. It was far from ideal and was disgusting as far as he was concerned, but food was starting to become limited.

So, he began turning to other means of food: the birds, fishing, the small rodents that had been prey for the smaller carnivores. He wasn’t always successful hunting these and went to bed hungry more than he cared to admit. Clashes with the few remaining small predators became more frequent and, in the past, it would have just been a bluffing match. Now, they became fights to the death. He liked it when they happened, it meant he got to eat well.

Besides the increasingly worrisome food issue, he had another problem. With no one to talk to and keep him thinking like a human, he found himself starting to lose his grasp on who he was. He barely remembered his name with no one to speak it. His childhood and life before the island were jumbled, faded…More like a dream than truth.

It scared him. The tales Michael had told him so many years ago lurked at the back of his mind as a warning. But at the same time, did it really matter? He was certain he was going to die on the island, likely from starvation if things continued on the way they were going. The pockets of dinosaur herds were smaller and smaller. Had he known what was going to happen, he likely would have allowed himself to be captured. Freedom was great, sure, but starving to death? Not so great.

At least he was able to slow the loss of self. He took to quietly talking to himself. When he thought things over, he would ask himself a question out loud and then mentally answer it, or mentally ask himself a question and then answer out loud.  In a sense, carrying on a conversation with himself…But he didn’t know how long it would help. When he changed back to human, now, it always took him a moment to come back to himself.

One of these days, he knew he wasn’t going to change back.

Lightning flickered across the cloudy night sky and somewhere in the distance, a rex roared; it was a mating call, from the sounds of things, but the rex went unanswered...It was the only one left and had been for some time now. Compared to most nights, the sound of the jungle was subdued, likely from the incoming storm. It had done nothing to prevent his earlier hunt from being successful, however. With how few of the dinosaurs were left, it felt good to have a full stomach.

Most things had been bedded down this evening and it’d been easy to pick off the sub-adult Corythosaurus after he’d spooked the small herd. The kill was still out in the field and he’d likely return to it in the morning. As it was, he had hauled home as much meat as he had been able to carry. Eating well was a rarity now, and he had intended to enjoy what amounted to a delicacy.  
  
Leaning forward, he spat out a bit of gristle from his meal before settling back into the carved-out tree nest. He shifted so that he was lying down, with his feet up against the wall of the nest. The thunder was closer now and the wind was picking up, causing the temperature to drop. Since it was in the middle of the dry season, the cooler temperatures were nice. Sure, he was long since used to the humid summers, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed sweating all day long.  
  
As he watched the lightning in the clouds become more intense, his thoughts drifted back to when he first arrived on the island. The plane wreck, trying to survive, finding Kurt and then Michael…The change. Michael. He sighed and picked at the meat next to him; it was little more than bone with bits of meat still attached. He hadn’t thought about Michael in some time now and he felt a stab of…Loss? Regret? Something. He had never returned to the cave, but he was certain that he still knew the way.  
  
Honestly, he wasn't sure why the soldiers had stopped, but it was probably InGen cutting their losses…Assuming the company even existed anymore. Hell, he didn’t know if the rest of the world existed. For all he knew, everything had gone to hell and the island was all that was left. Good thing he didn’t care. Well, that wasn’t exactly true.

“Horrible liar.” He mused, his voice was somewhat hoarse from lack of speaking. Sure, he still tried to talk to himself, but it didn’t really seem to be working anymore. It was getting harder and harder to string together complete sentences. “Miss everything.”  
  
There was another rumble overhead before the sky simply opened up and started dumping rain. Knowing that the humidity in the morning would bring all sorts of bugs, he shifted slightly to knock out the remains of his meal. He listened to it hit a few branches as it fell, but it was raining hard enough that he didn’t hear it land on the ground. No doubt one of the few remaining Compy packs would find it and make a quick meal of it. The rainfall continued to drown out all the other sounds of the island and so he finally rolled over onto his side to sleep.  
  
It was the heat and humidity of the morning that woke him up, leaving him feeling vaguely overheated. Grimacing, he sat up and squinted at the brightness of the sunlight reflecting off the water still on the leaves. After a healthy yawn, he started climbing down the tree but dropped down the final ten feet or so to the ground. In years past, he likely would have been greeted by the calls of sauropods, but the island was largely devoid of such noises.  
  
Lazily, he wandered down a beaten trail, ignoring how his feet sunk into the muck a bit. Honestly, he wasn’t too hungry yet and so returning to the kill didn’t seem appealing. If anything, a quick dunk in one of the streams sounded like a better idea, then maybe lazing around until he actually got hungry again.

There wasn’t much in the way of a breeze and the sensation of feeling overheated only got worse. So he finally opted to take a quick dunk in one of the streams to wash off yesterday's grime and to help cool off. After wringing out his hair and giving his head a healthy shake, he waded out of the water to start drying off. That's when he heard it.  
  
Poppopopop.  
  
Gunfire, distant, but gunfire. Narrowing his eyes, he growled softly before shifting. He' be able to cover much more ground as a raptor, and do more damage. Lightly, he scented the air, but wasn't able to pick anything up. The gunfire had come from downwind of him, anyway. Taking off at a lazy trot, he started towards the sound. He had often entertained the idea of allowing himself to be captured. While he didn’t know what sort of fate InGen had planned, he now figured that it’d be better than slowly starving.

After a bit of time, he found them. In typical fashion, the humans were making plenty of noise...Not only with their movement but from their bitching. Starting on their left, he circled behind them to their right, taking stock of how many there were and what they were armed with. Softly, he rumbled in amusement at the memory of the last group he had encountered because it made him realize how much he'd grown. He'd been able to look a man in the eyes, but now, he'd have to crane his neck to look down at them.  
  
He would really only need to have one alive in order to get the information he needed; the rest could be killed. The man in the lead spat a curse at someone else and suddenly shoved through the undergrowth, away from the rest of the group. Idiot. Lunging forward with a snarl, he snapped his jaws down on the man's head and shook his own head violently until he hurt a wet snap. The man in his jaws went limp.  
  
Someone else screamed and ran, this prompted him to drop the one in his jaws and bolt after the runner. Long ago, he would have relied more on stealth, but these people were already panicked and seemed more inexperienced than prior soldiers. As he got closer to the runner, he pounced and made a disappointed huff at the strangled sound the human made. Well, it wasn't likely the man would be getting up anytime soon with how his upper chest was crushed.   
  
Honestly, this was the most fun that he'd had in some time; he’d forgotten how much fun it could be. A third person was completely running in the opposite direction, so naturally, he gave chase. This one, he snagged by the arm and shook his head again. However, the arm came off in a somewhat comical manner, leaving him holding the limb in his mouth and blinking a bit in surprise. Dropping it, he stalked after the human and paused before raising a foot and simply gutting him with a toe claw. The fourth had ran off, and likely wouldn't survive for too long.  
  
This only left number five. It was hard to find him under the smell of all the blood, but once he had, he moved away. This was to make it seem as if he couldn't find him. Circling back around, he silently stalked up behind the man and then snorted hot air onto his neck before making the characteristic clicking noise that raptors were known for. However, unlike the Velociraptors who populated the island, his clicking was deeper and a great deal more menacing.  
  
Of course, just for his own amusement, he leaned down a bit more and snorted in the human's ear. Then, he opened his mouth knowing the man likely could see his teeth. He remained like that for a moment before finally making a soft click and swiping his tongue over the side of the man's face. Afterwards, he scent marked him to make it easier to track him and then slinked away.

As he had suspected, the man beelined it to the camp…But oddly enough, the camp was empty. It didn’t matter to him since it worked to his favor and allowed him to ambush the man as a human. There, he was able to find out that InGen had started hunting him again and had plans of taking him to some sort of park.

While he didn’t know what sort of park it was, he also had no desire to die here. So, he had the man lead him to the other group…Which was surprisingly small, all things considered. Unknown to either of them, the rest of the soldiers had chosen to camp out in the trees, which allowed them an easy shot. He would have preferred to claim that he went down with a massive fight, but truthfully?

The sedative packed a massive punch.


	13. Epilogue

He slipped in and out of consciousness, the movement of the boat lulled him back to sleep when he began waking. In a sense, it was nice to have a deep, restful sleep…One that relaxed every part of him. Deep down, he knew it wouldn’t last. There was no telling what InGen would do with him. He’d gone from something he’d known for most of his life and into the complete unknown. Hopefully, it’d been the right choice.

The bumpiness of the road was what finally stirred him from his sleep. Blearily, he opened his eyes. The top and sides of the cage was covered with canvas, but through the front, he saw greenery and dust that’d been kicked up by the vehicle. His head still felt fuzzy and he closed his eyes again.

The cage jarred and woke him up again. Around him, he heard conversation and watched the open gates of an enclosure slowly get closer. He carefully gathered his legs under him and let his head flop to the side as he closed his eyes. The cage settled on the ground with a _thump_ and made him briefly tense, but the humans around him were too busy to notice.

“That…Is a massive raptor. Look at it…It’s gorgeous. My God. It’s from Sorna?” A male voice spoke softly, but was clearly excited.

“Yeah. Took an assload of sedative to take it down.” This was a different male.

“Were you able to get any measurements?” The same voice as before.

“Well, nice to see you too, Dr. Jones…But yes, I did. I wasn’t able to do an exam since I was worried about it overheating. But from nose to tail is 22 feet and four inches. Weight when we lifted it to the ship was just under 2,350…But I think it’s underweight.” This time, a woman spoke.

“The weight doesn’t surprise me. The dinosaur population has been waning on Sorna since 2016.” The man spoke and sound slightly distracted. “Were you able to get a height? Working on the profile.”

“Not yet. Just from what I saw of it standing, I’m guessing eight foot. A couple of the ACU guys only came up to its shoulder.”

“Well, I think it’s still well sedated. So I think I’ll go in and do a quick exam.”

He felt something poke his shoulder a few times, but he remained still. Then something pushed against his head and he allowed his head to be pushed slightly.

“Oh yeah. It’s out.” The doors to the cage opened with a bit of a squeak.

He waited for the foot steps to get closer, and then the person crouched down in front of him to gently push his head over. The man murmured a soft ‘beautiful’ and lightly ran a hand of the top of his head. He opened his eyes slightly and blinked them slightly to bring everything back into focus. The canvas cover had been pulled back slightly and his left eye locked eyes with a young woman with blue hair.

“…Chuck…It’s waking up.”

“It’s fine, Kaitly—” The man was cut off mid-sentence when he suddenly lunged and grabbed him with his jaws as he charged out of the cage. His teeth sunk in deep and crushed bone, yet the man still screamed. He was tossed to the side, even as he felt the sting of a dart bury itself into his hip. Around him, people scattered and he _roared_ before charging forward towards a soldier. He felt another dart smack into his chest, but he slammed his head into the soldier, sending him flying into a tree. The world spun when he twisted around to go after another person, but he was hell bent on carnage.

His next step forward saw him crashing down and his vision went black before his head hit the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline:  
> 1997: InGen purchased by Masrani Global  
> March 1998: Kurt lands on Sorna to begin work on RH Project on orders by InGen  
> 1999: Scientists landed on Sorna to illegally clone 4 new species of dinosaurs (Ankylosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Corythosaurus, and Spinosaurus) who were experimented over the course of the next 9 months; said dinosaurs were then abandoned  
> Dec. 20th, 2001: Joey lands on the island and is captured.  
> Dec. 20th-21st: Joey’s experimented on.  
> Dec. 21st 2001: Joey escapes and falls ill.  
> Dec. 21st-24th 2001: Joey’s illness.  
> Dec. 24th: Joey changes.  
> Early 2002: Construction on Jurassic World begins  
> Early 2004: Construction on JW finishes and dinosaurs illegally cloned are captured for the park  
> May 12th 2004: Michael/Joey run into their first retrieval team  
> 2005: JW opens  
> July 16th, 2005: Michael/Joey encounter another retrieval team  
> 2005-2007: Michael/Joey run into more retrieval teams as InGen continues moving dinosaurs.  
> Sept. 27th 2008: Michael’s killed; InGen stops actively hunting Joey.  
> 2009-2016: InGen continues moving dinosaurs; populations begin to drop below sustainability.  
> Early 2018: Capture of Joey.


End file.
